


The Sentai and the Cultist

by Lacertae



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sentai Rangers, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cultist Zenyatta, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff and Angst, Kidnapping, M/M, Minor Relationships, Mistaken Identity, Misunderstandings, Monsters, Nanites, Omnics, Pain, Secret Crush, Secret Identity, Sentai Genji Shimada, Slow Burn, Virus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-02-01 10:28:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 178,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12703095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lacertae/pseuds/Lacertae
Summary: *Genji/Zenyatta* [updates mondays]On one side, the Sentai Rangers, pinnacle of heroism, protectors of the city. On the other, an evil creature on the rise with his army of monsters... and yet. And yet, something was missing. Something was not quite right. Genji just was not sure what, exactly, intrigued him so much about this Creature they called the Cultist.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> We'll see where this is going! I started writing this idly for nanowrimo, so I hope it'll be entertaining. :)

**Prologue**

 

It had been a year and a day since it had happened.

Zenyatta had been meditating, then, floating a few inches above a rock on a secluded shore, his face plate turned towards the sea.

It had been a bleak day, the sky grey and cloudy and the sea looking almost tumultuous, but Zenyatta had not minded –there was a certain beauty to be found even on such days, unrest in the air like a charge that he could almost taste.

The sea was still beautiful, even with this weather, and the waves crashing against the beach was pleasant to his auricular receptors just as much as their sight was for his optical ones.

He had been meditating, but not too deeply, for he enjoyed the sight and he would not linger much longer in this area, soon to return to his brothers and sister at the monastery, when something had fallen nearby, making a soft sound against the sand.

Zenyatta’s optical receptors had powered up, surprised, and he had searched his surroundings, noticing that a little to the side, there was a small black ball which at first had looked completely blank, but as he hovered closer, curious, he could make out carvings all over its surface, just as dark as the metal of the ball itself.

He had never seen anything such as this before.

Still, even in his curiosity, he had not reached for the ball and had instead searched around himself. There was no one else anywhere, and he was not close enough to the water that it could have been washed to the shore…

With a click, the ball had moved one inch, and Zenyatta, startled, had looked back at it in time to see it shiver and then unravel upon itself, dissipating into a cloud of black mist.

He had no time to do anything, because then the mist grew in size, and his senses were assaulted with an incredible, overpowering Discord –enough that he staggered backwards, losing control over his hovering to fall closer to the sand, and then…

And then the mist had dawned on him, like a wave of darkness, submerging him.

In the minutes that followed, Zenyatta had known pain unlike any other.

What had looked like simple dark mist had been in truth thousands of nanomachines, smaller than the smallest he’d seen until then. They had attached themselves to every inch of his body, interfacing with his mainframe, connecting with the sensors and overcoming his defences, bugging out his program.

Zenyatta had dropped down, narrowly avoiding hitting the back of his head against a rock, and rolled onto the sand, choking on a sudden scream of pain.

The nanomachines violently fought to swarm inside him, and they were everywhere, and Zenyatta could feel them work, though he had no idea what they were doing.

Sand grated against his chassis and wriggled inside his body as he writhed and twitched, unable to escape the sudden assault that was everywhere around him.

The mala which had been dormant around his neck had fallen and rolled away from him, and Zenyatta, in an instinctive attempt to get away from the pain, had reached out one arm towards them, but to no avail –his connection with them was abruptly cut off, and another fresh wave of pain travelled through his servos, filling every wire and circuit with mind-numbing agony.

Zenyatta had fought against it –he could feel the nanomachines interfacing with his circuits, eroding his chassis, injecting him with new program data, reshaping parts of his body, changing him– but to no avail.

The pain was too strong for his processors to take or sort through, overwhelming in its intensity, and it had left him gasping and sobbing and clawing at the sand as he could feel, more than see, his body change and adapt to the new program overpowering him.

The nanomachines fought, and he fought back, anchoring his brain processes against the pain and standing his ground and when he’d thought he could no longer stall their advance, he had called upon the Iris, desperate and frantic, as a last resort.

The Iris had answered, a single second of mercy from the pain, golden light shining through the crevices of his body, glowing from the inside, pushing against the nanomachines but then–

–it was cut off.

Abruptly snuffed out, the Iris disappeared from under his touch, and it felt to Zenyatta as if something had been severed from him, the loss like a physical blow.

Shocked, in pain and alone, Zenyatta was left to scream and writhe and suffer as the nanomachines reworked him. For what felt like forever, he’d only known pain,  and only when they were done was he allowed reprise, and the pain finally receded.

For a long time, Zenyatta had remained curled up in a ball of misery on the sand, uncaring about the grains grinding against his circuits, tired and aching and recovering from the pain that had fried so many of his sensors.

His servos responded to his check-up program, but his processes were sluggish, most of them barely online, and his battery had been depleted enough that red warnings flashed past his blurred subconscious, alerting him he was close to shutting down.

Yet, he made himself move.

Slowly, haltingly, he learned the new shapes of his body as he dragged his heavy frame across the sand and out of the beach area, synth cracking as it was flooded with sand grains.

It would take him hours longer to be able to stand up, realising that in this state he could barely control himself , let alone hover. It would take him longer to catalogue fully how much his body had changed, the new parts that had been added, his new appearance.

And then, some more time to find out he could no longer touch the Iris, nor feel its kind, gentle warmth shine inside his core, replaced with something colder, purple and vengeful.

Zenyatta had changed, and with that, he’d been forced away from his path and left on a different one, alone and stranded.


	2. Chapter 01

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been without internet for a few days, so i could not post this. I hope it keeps being good for u ppl! It might be a bit slow in the making and also slow burn so just... hang in there yes?

**Chapter 01**

“Genji!”

Sprawled over a couch, tapping mindlessly on his tablet and following the zooms of his game avatar as it ran across the screen, Genji Shimada offered his friend Angela Ziegler a small grunt.

When it became clear he had no intention to look up, Angela took a long, suffering sigh.

“Genji!” she slid closer to him until she was towering above him, though Genji still did not look up from his tablet. “I called you twice, did you even hear me?”

“Hmm-mmmh,” was his absent reply as he watched the small cutscene his avatar was doing in a prelude to a boss fight.

“We got a _call_!”

 _That_ did get Genji’s attention. He dropped the tablet on the couch at his side and scrambled up to his feet, his apathetic expression gone and replaced with a serious, determined look. “Really? Who?”

Relieved she finally had his attention, Angela straightened her back. “There’s been an attack not too far from here. Two monsters were spotted in the area, attacking different targets, and…” she hesitated, one hand caressing the bracelet around her wrist.

“What, Angela? Is there something else?”

She nodded, her expression stormy. “They say the Cultist has been sighted nearby as well. It’s probable he’s the one who orchestrated both attacks, as a way to divert our attention away from him.”

Genji’s face twisted in displeasure and he bit down on his lower lip, looking anywhere but at her. “Are you sure–”

“Genji.” Angela reached out, grabbing one of Genji’s wrists in her hands, and he reluctantly looked at her. “I don’t know what reservations you have about that guy, but there is nothing redeemable about him. All he does is create a mess for us to clean up, and put people in danger. It is true that for now we have not witnessed any of his crimes, but we have plenty of proof of what he can do, and just how dangerous he can be.”

“Look, I know that, but…” Genji tugged his wrist free, hands clenching down into fists. “I still feel like we’re missing something here, alright?”

Angela shook her head but refrained from saying anything more on the subject. “We have to go. We’ve been dispatched to stop the monsters and we need to leave now. There’s no time to stop and discuss about this again. We… we’ll talk about this later, okay?”

Genji watched Angela turn around and leave his room, and he followed her, though he knew that ‘later’ would never happen, not when the Cultist was involved.

He was probably the only one who felt weirdly suspicious about the monster’s habits, but even he had to admit that his hesitance was not caused by something specific –it was his instinct, really, and despite how much Genji trusted it, trusted himself, there had been many times he’d been wrong, in the past.

That did not make it any less difficult to ignore this feeling.

The building they lived in was divided in four main areas –the common area, the training grounds, the wing with their private rooms and the Observation Room. Angela headed to the Observation Room, followed closely by Genji though he was lost in thought, barely noticing the arrival of Lucio and Hana, both looking grim and ready for action.

The Observation Room had a giant screen in the middle, visible from the entrance doors, and it was lit when the four of them arrived, neatly divided in two parts and already showing live footage of both the monsters attacking the city.

One of the two monsters was a misshapen creature that looked like a mantis shrimp, its back multi-coloured and glistening under the sunlight, and it was chomping down on a wall, leaving behind bitten off chunks of concrete and half-broken cables fizzing with electricity.

The other monster was… Genji wasn’t sure exactly what it was supposed to be. It was rounder, with a face split in two parts that kept opening and closing, like claws, but it wasn’t anything he was familiar with, and it was already in its giant, expanded form, laughing maniacally as it kicked down trees and cars, people screaming as they ran away from danger.

The moment the four entered in the room, the live report moved to the lower part of the screen, and the upper part flickered and became the familiar face of Winston, face smashed against the camera as he pushed his glasses up his nose.

“Uhh… as you’ve seen, we’ve got quite a problem here. Or, well. Two of them.”

“You could say we’ve got a double trouble,” Genji muttered half-heartedly, smirking at Lucio when he heard him snort.

“Yeah, well, You’ll split up in two groups and head over to dispose of the monsters. The Masked Vigilante has been alerted as well, and will join you there.” Winston pulled back, and the screen wavered, replacing his face with that of his AI, Athena.

Her face was glowing blue, a vibrant electric colour that wavered at the edges. “Green Sentai and White Sentai will deal with the Shrimp Monster, while Pink and Blue Sentai will deal with the Oyster, and–”

“So _that’s_ what that is!” Genji’s exclamation was shushed by his three companions, and he rolled his eyes before addressing the most pressing problem. “What about the Cultist?”

“Genji, we’re not letting you face him again, it’s not _safe,_ ” Hana glared at him, lips pursed in a frown. “Last time he almost convinced you to _listen_ to him!”

Genji felt his cheeks burn a bit in embarrassment, though he had no trouble defending himself, even if she was right.

The Cultist had been really eloquent, had sounded honestly insistent for Genji to listen, that he had something important to say, that he had no animosity towards the Sentai Ranger nor towards the other heroes, and Genji…

“I still say nothing bad would happen if we just listened to him, that’s all.” He muttered, but his words were once again brushed off.

He could understand their reticence –it was not the first time one of the bad guys had tried to fool the heroes only to attack them once their guard was lowered, but…

But.

It did not matter to Genji that the Cultist had such a creepy, scary appearance, and he did not even care for the aura of dread that seemed to follow him everywhere he went. Something inside Genji told him that he had to listen, and he could not just push that thought away, no matter how much he tried to ignore it.

There was no more time to lose, though, and Genji took off first, wanting to get to the monster as soon as possible to prevent any more damage to the city.

He would have preferred picking on the giant… Oyster, really, as it was the one that was attacking people and making more of a ruckus, but he trusted Athena’s decision, and if she’d directed him to toe shrimp it meant he would face a greater challenge against that one, which was all he was about, really.

“Sentai, go!” he screamed, lips pulling up in a wide smile as he reached out for the watch around his wrist, setting it off to start his transformation in Sentai Ranger.

A flash of energy coalesced around him, with the overlapping impression of a roaring, green dragon curling around his body, and then his costume appeared around him, metal and fabric mixing together until at last, the mask covered his face.

Behind him, he heard Hana, Lucio and Angela do the same, activating their devices in tandem, though he did not turn around to look.

Soon all four of the Sentai Rangers were running out of the base, then split up.

Angela –White Sentai– and Genji, now donning the costume of Green Sentai, both took off to the right. Genji jumped high, his training and augmented abilities allowing him to climb higher and higher on a tall, vertical wall until he was dashing across the rooftops.

Angela waited until Genji was sprinting in the distance, then stretched out her right hand and her bracelet, now a bigger jewel wrapped around her wrist, morphed into a long staff that she pointed at him.

“Caduceus Staff – Angelic Descent!”

A stream of white light enveloped the tip of her staff, attaching itself to Genji’s form as he jumped out of sight.

Instantly, the connected thread tugged her along and she flew behind him, quickly reaching his side, the wings on the back of her costume halting her dash to match Genji’s speed, so she could keep close to him as he sprinted onwards.

“It should not take long for us to defeat the monster, then we can join the others,” Angela called out to him, and Genji grunted his assent, putting more strength into his strides until he was almost a blur, jumping and running at an incredible speed.

Through it, Angela continued to follow him, deftly avoiding any obstacle, twisting in mid-air and sometimes landing and jumping to follow him, her mechanical wings flaring with energy as she kept her staff trained on him to maintain the connection active.

“Keep your eyes open, Green Sentai,” Angela called out for him as they got closer and closer to where the monster had been sighted. “We don’t know where the Cultist might hide. I will not allow you to get hurt. Not on my watch.”

Genji sighed, but nodded.

He was grateful she was protective, as he’d gotten hurt more than once, and he knew that she was only looking out for him, especially after the last time…

Uncomfortable at the reminder of his one big failure, Genji rubbed one hand on his throat. He’d needed an operation, and part of his mouth and throat were now mechanic, after an attack from one particularly strong monster that had almost ripped him in half. It did not truly bother him, not anymore, though he had to have aid breathing normally after any heavy activity where he did not have his mask’s breather active as he did while on sentai duty, but for months it had been hard to cope with the situation or the changes, and he knew his friends and teammates only wished to make sure nothing like that happened again.

“Here it is!” Genji finally located the monster.

True to the footage Winston had showed them earlier, the monster seemed intent in bringing down random walls in a non-populated area of the city and with no apparent pattern that Genji could recognize.

The shrimp monster chomped down on a hydrant, gnawing at it until part of it broke, but not enough to start a jet of water, then observed the damage and moved on.

It did not make any sound, nor did it grin in satisfaction, like other monsters Genji had met before.

“Let’s go, White Sentai!”

“Yes! Powered up!” Angela flicked her staff and channelled through her powers and the white stream tinged with blue as she fuelled her energy into turning Genji’s attacks up a notch.

The powers granted to her by her morphing suit were mostly support, healing and empowering others, but if it needed be, she had quite a good aim and a secondary weapon to defend herself with and aid her companions.

Still, Genji estimated it would not be needed.

“Monster! Cease and desist, for the Sentai Rangers have arrived!” he jumped down, rolling when he reached the ground, and stopped a few feet away from the monster, who was startled out from its eating, pieces of the concrete falling from its mouth. “With the fiery might of a Dragon, Green Sentai is here!”

Angela landed softly behind him, wings spread behind her and Caduceus staff glowing brightly. “With the grace of a Swan, White Sentai arrives!”

The monster turned slowly to look at them.

For a moment, Genji thought it looked tired –perhaps it had munched on too much heavy concrete, who knew– then it seemed to grow onto itself, squaring its shoulders, and its mouth, as inhuman as it could be, parted into a flurry of tiny tentacles.

“Rangers, huh? Finally, someone deigned to come!” the voice was rough from disuse, deep and raspy, and Genji winced in sympathy before the monster continued, in a pompous tone, “Bow to me, Rangers, as I will destroy your city!”

“Not on my watch, monster!”

His words had the monster twitch, and if Genji had been looking, he would have though it seemed a wince –but Genji was focusing on the future battle, and the small movement went unnoticed. “Yes, monster. I’m a monster, so you’d better take me seriously or I’m going to eat you just like I ate all this concrete!”

Then, the battle truly began.

Genji dashed forwards, shuriken flipping out from a slot on his arm, and he threw them at the monster, who deflected them easily with one part of its thick keratin cover, making them rebound away from it. With a hiss, Genji bounced high in the air, Angela following him closely but staying a little on the side, ready to switch from damage boost to heal should he need it.

“You have to be faster if you wish to harm me, sentai,” the monster growled at him, sounding annoyed, goading him, and Genji smirked underneath his mask.

“I do like a good challenge, you creep!”

He attempted another set of shuriken but was once more deflected, the attack not even leaving a scratch on the monster’s body, so he cracked his knuckles together. “Angela, close-combat now!”

“Understood!”

“Sentai power attack, Dragon Blade unleashed!”

With a sharp flick of his hand, Genji brought his left hand down from his right shoulder to the wrist, and green, thick smoke raised under his touch, sailing in the air and glowing before it solidified into the edge of a sharp blade, its hilt in his hand, ready for combat.

“Let’s see how you fare against my sharp blade, monster! Ha!” Genji darted forwards, empowered by the energy he could feel channelled into his body by Angela’s staff, and he clashed against the monster, who used one of his armoured arms to par his blade.

Again, then once more, the two slammed against one another. They rolled around, jumped and parred then attacked again. Genji’s sword ricocheted on the monster’s colourful shell, as if it was having no effect on it, not even to slow it down, until–

Finally, a crack appeared on the edge of the monster’s thick shield, and Genji smiled under his mask as the monster slipped and fell in front of him, one clawed hand coming to rest above the damaged area.

“Now it’s the time for my final move. Dragon, surge forwards and lend me your power!” as he focused deep inside him, he felt the power of the Dragon Spirit living within him answer his plea, its intangible form appearing as a ghostly aura around him.

Genji breathed deeply, feeling the fierce power of the spirit burn through his veins, hot like fire, filling him with determination and cockiness as he prepared to attack the monster and finish it, in his excitement not even noticing how little the monster had cared to attack back.

“Dragon Spirit, rise! Dragon Blade, slash true!”

Getting into position, Genji darted forwards, empowered by both Angela’s staff and his own dragon, and the dragon soared above him and flung itself into his blade, which flashed brightly, green light bathing everywhere around him.

The monster stared at him, frozen in fear, though it wasn’t shivering or cowering, it was just… sitting there, obviously cowed and having given up, and Genji raised his blade, ready to finish it–

“No.”

The attack came from above, and Genji had not expected it.

Something ricocheted against the edge of his blade inches from the monster’s chest, pushing it to the side, and Genji stumbled and missed, his speed losing momentum as he was unable to recalibrate, having been so focused on the monster he had not seen the attack coming.

Something flew sharply around him, and Genji, following his instincts, flung his weapon against it, missing once, then again, then–

Something hit the edge of his sword once again, and Genji felt it resonate in his hands, making him almost drop the sword as he winced and avoided more of the projectiles coming his way.

Nullified, his dragon attack faded into nothing, losing its strength as the dragon slithered out of his blade and fused back into Genji’s body.

Flummoxed, Genji straightened his back and followed the projectiles back to who’d sent them, finding himself staring at the Cultist standing straight on top of a nearby wall, one hand stretched out towards him.

He looked imposing, an aura of darkness clinging to him. His face was in part obscured by his hood, but his eyes and the array blinking on his forehead were both glowing ominously.

Anger filled Genji’s body, together with a weird excitement pooling into his guts, like any other time he and the Cultist had clashed against one another.

“How dare you stop me!”

“You will not harm him.” The Cultist spoke, clearly, despite the distance between them.

Genji heard Angela flutter and land near him, and he felt her aid cut off all of sudden as her staff turned into her laser weapon that she pointed at the Cultist’s head, though he did not look bothered by that.

“Come down and face me, instead of cowering that far, monster!” Genji goaded him, feeling empowered by the fact that the Cultist was keeping his distance.

“I do not think that would be ideal, no,” the monster replied, his voice even.

The tentacles around his face wriggled lazily as he spoke, and he curled both hands in front of himself as his weapon of choice, a line of nine orbs with glowing, creepy eyes on them, circled around him, slowly.

Ready to attack, probably, and Genji forgot, momentarily, his own reservations about the monster.

This was not the first time he’d appeared to stop them from ending one of the monsters they’d found, and it was one of the main reasons none of the other sentai, nor Winston, agreed with Genji about the monster not wishing to fight.

“You won’t get away with this one this time, Cultist!” Angela took a step forwards, her weapon still pointed at the monster’s head.

“Do you wish to stop me, White sentai?” the Cultist murmured, no anger or spite in his voice, just a quiet amusement. “You won’t. They will come with me.”

He turned to look at the monster on the ground, who was now growling, utterly angry. It was still clutching at its damaged body, but did not look grateful that the Cultist –a monster of a higher level, so dangerous that the sentai never attacked unless they were all together– had arrived to help.

Genji wondered about that, but chalked it up to not being able to best the sentai heroes by itself, which was the most probable reason.

“Get away!” the monster seemed to regain some energy and attempted to stand up, its attention entirely focused on the Cultist for a split second before he turned to the rangers. “I was so close! So close! You won’t take that away from me!”

Taken aback by the sudden ferocity, Genji took a step back, though his lips were pulled up in a sarcastic smirk under the mask. “As if, my guy, I was the one who was about to get you shoved back where you came from! And I can still do it, just watch me!”

Angela did not switch back to her staff, her weapon still trained at the Cultist as Genji readied his blade once again, about to leap at the monster, who had straightened its back and was pointing both clawed hands at him, then–

The Cultist moved.

With the sort of grace that one would not expect to see from a monster he descended from the wall, landing quietly between Genji and the monster, one arm stretched out towards the two sentai, his disgusting orbs spinning lazily around him, eyes blinking and peering one direction, then another, in a weird orbit.

“I said I won’t allow you to.”

The orbs flashed their way, faster than either Genji and Angela could see –one slammed into her wrist, and she let out a soft gasp and the sting, dropping her laser gun and watching it vanish away, recalled through her powers.

Genji avoided the first two orbs by sheer instinct, but the third one brushed against his sword, and he fumbled with his grip on it, the situation made worse when more orbs focused on him, pushing him back as he kept avoiding them.

“Stop doing this! We’re doing this community a service by removing these monsters!” Genji called out.

“We’ll make sure to remove you as well!” Angela stepped close to Genji, her fingers splayed out as she prepared to summon her staff out once more.

“Again, that will not happen. I am not here to fight you.” The Cultist did not turn away from them, his expression severe, green eyes glowing eerily from underneath his cloak, tentacles squirming on his face.

Genji shivered, feeling like the monster was staring deep into his soul, and that he’d just come out of it lacking.

As if following an unspoken command, the orbs chimed with a metallic, almost pleasant sound, and vibrated in mid-air, their surface coating itself with purple, and Genji and Angela gasped out at the horrible sensation pouring out from them, the Discord flowing so easily to their minds that their instinctual reaction was to pull back and put more distance between themselves and the two monsters.

It was enough for the Cultist to crouch next to the other monster, though his eyes were still trained on the two sentai, and place one hand on the monster’s shoulder.

“Come,” he murmured. It was not a request –it was a command, at least for Genji.

The monster appeared to hesitate only for a split second, then he crumpled, submitting to the will of the other, more powerful entity.

He nodded, and the Cultist seemed satisfied. With a steady hold on the monster’s arm, he tugged him upwards, and with a graceful jump, he moved away from the ground and onto a nearby wall.

“Farewell, sentai. Until next time.”

And then he was gone, and the orbs vibrating with discord followed him, leaving Genji and Angela frazzled but unhurt, though their minds were shaking under the small contact with the Cultist’s assault.

“He… he got away again.” Angela’s hands were shaking, and Genji pressed one hand on her shoulder, though his was shaking just as much. “I just… I wanted to attack, but those orbs…”

“I felt it too. Just like last time.” Genji gritted his teeth, displeased, frustrated.

He’d wanted to be able to meet with the Cultist on his own, try to reason with him, ask why he kept preventing them from killing some monsters but not all of them, why he did not attack but used such horrid, unpleasant orbs to make the sentai keep their distance, and yet…

The discord he’d felt in his heart, the sudden fear of not being good enough, of failing, of being useless, had stopped him.

“What absurd, cruel power,” Angela hissed, now more angry at herself than scared. “We… we need to go back to the others. They might still be fighting and what if the Cultist goes where they are?”

“He wouldn’t dare if all of us are there,” Genji clenched both hands, but nodded his assent, time making the onslaught of Discord fade from his mind.

“Then let’s make sure we offer a united front, just in case. One day… one day, I will be able to take down that threat.”

“… let’s go, White sentai.”

***

When he judged there was enough distance between them and the two sentai, the Cultist’s shoulders dropped a little, and he finally stopped to let go of the shrimp monster, that slumped down on the ground and glared up at him.

There was so much animosity in that stare, though the Cultist looked back, unimpressed.

“I know of you,” the monster hissed, words bubbling strangely in its mouth. “Everybody talks about you, creating your own army, amassing followers like paws. I won’t be one of them. I don’t care if you think you ‘saved’ me from the sentai rangers. I won’t be used when I was so close to…”

“You are wrong.” The Cultist’s voice was almost gentle now, and the jarring change between his serious tone from before and this made the monster stutter, and quieten. “I have no army to speak of.”

“Everybody knows it. You whisk away monsters from the rangers with no consistency, and that’s why you’re called the Cultist –they _fear_ you, and your cult of monsters. Well, fuck off will ya? I ain’t interested.”

The tentacles around the Cultist’s mouth wriggled and his eyes glowed green under his hood. Around him, the nine orbs blinked and fluttered, hovering in a lazy circle.

“Is that so? Why is that? You wish to destroy the city on your own? You wish to exact revenge from the sentai, from the people of this city, who dare to live their lives normally and hate you?”

“I… no!” the monster stood up, staggering a bit with the wound to its keratin skin, and took another step back. “I don’t care! I was so close, so close–”

“–to allowing the sentai to trap you, for their creatures to exorcise you?” the Cultist interrupted him again. “I know this was your goal. It is why I stopped them. It is why I rescued you.”

“If you think you gained a follower like that, you’re seriously more fucked up than I thought. Destroy me if you want, I don’t care!”

“…” the Cultist shook his head, and the orbs around him bled discord, one that came from within him, thick and deep like grief. “I would never harm you. I know, my dear,” and under the monster’s shocked eyes, he took a step forwards, extending both arms towards him. “I know that you were once a human.”

The monster drew back, shocked, in turmoil. “No! I… h-how?!” for a split second, despite its horrendous, scary appearance, the monster appeared fragile, weak. “I… you–”

“My dear, I am but one like you, except I did not start as a human, but as an omnic.” The Cultist sighed quietly. “I went by the name Tekhartha Zenyatta before, though now… like this, with this new appearance… my name was lost and abandoned. But I will not allow anyone to forget who they were, even if now they appear different. The soul within is still the same, and it is that which I sought to help.”

“Tekh–” the monster spluttered, confused, unable to believe, the name a familiar beacon in its mind. “The… the Shambali?!”

“Yes. I know you feel hatred now for what you became, and there is no explanation I can offer –I have found none for my own transformation, either– but you are not alone, even if no one was willing to listen before. They run, they’re afraid, frightened by your appearance, as if something prevents them to listen when they look at you.” The Cultist… Zenyatta… stepped forwards again, and the monster this time did not flinch away, a new desperate glint in its eyes, claws clenched down hard on the concrete of the ground below him. “Wishing to give yourself up to the rangers will do nothing good for you, and I cannot truly offer you hope, but I can offer you a safe haven. The Shambali will welcome you under my name, they will protect you and seek out to contact anyone you wish, and–” at the monster’s full body flinch, Zenyatta continued “if you wish for no one to be contacted, you will stll be free to stay with them. We do not cast away anyone, and…” he hesitated, then pointed at his body. “I changed. I learned to look further than one’s appearance, and was able to see, thanks to my abilities that I was not the only one. Now I seek to find and offer refuge to the ones who are lost, like me. Go to the Shambali, my friend. You are not alone, and you do not need to suffer or punish yourself for something you cannot control.”

“But I… this…” the monster choked, voice full of tears that it could not spill. “This is horrid. I’m mostruous. My spouse… my own twin, they– they…” it crumpled down in a heap, shaking, claws grasping at the ground. “They would not listen, even when I tried to tell them that it was me. They chased me out, screamed, cried for help until I ran. I just wanted this disgusting body to be gone. I wanted to go back. I…”

“I understand, my friend. Rejection is painful, but you do not deserve to suffer further. You are not a monster. I see you. I feel it, right here.” Zenyatta pressed a gentle hand above the monster’s chest. “Many of my abilities abandoned me when I was turned, but this… this did not. In fact, I am more tuned with my senses like this than I was before. Your discord, your pain –the true form of your soul. I can feel it. You are no monster.”

The monster choked on its voice, and allowed Zenyatta to wrap his arms around its shaking shoulders, and to hold him until the shaking subsided, much later, though no tears could drop from its eyes.

It had been a while since anyone had willingly touched it, or offered something different from spite, hatred and distrust.

“If… if I go to the Shambali… will you come with me?”

“Unfortunately, I cannot be seen associating with them. I have acquired a bad fame. My name… the name this persona gained was forced on me just the same as my change, but I need to continue. The Shambali need to keep clear, so they can help others like you while I seek out the truth.”

“But… you work alone, then?” the monster extended one shaky arm, barely daring to brush its claws on Zenyatta’s shoulder. “Do you… do you miss them?”

“I do. But my brother converses with me on videocalls, and though I cannot meet with him, I know his spirit is always by my side.” Zenyatta’s tone was mournful, the sadness bleeding from his synth.

The shrimp looked at him for a long time, then– “I… I will go. To the Shambali.”

Zenyatta could not smile, but the tentacles covering his mouth piece wriggled, and the dot on his forehead array burned green in happiness. “Thank you. Please, send my brother Mondatta all my love. I am still searching, but so far, I have not been able to find anything.”

“If… if you find a way to…”

“Do not fear, my friend. I will call, and you all will know.”

“… thank you, Cul– Zenyatta. I was… I was ready to give up, let the rangers seal me away, so long as I could no longer see this body, but…”

“My friend, I understand. I am glad I found you, though. Will you tell me, before you go, what is your name?”

“Ah… my name…” again, the monster’s tone sounded choked. “I was… I was called… I _am_ called… Theo.”

And as he murmured his name for the first time in what felt like forever, after months of running, denying his past, denying himself because of his new appearance, the monster whose name was Theo, who had once been a human and who still had a human soul, felt the tiniest sparkle of hope ignite within his chest.

Zenyatta gently brushed one hand against his face, welcoming, soft and gentle.

“Well met, Theo. It is a pleasure.”

 


	3. Chapter 02

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some backstory, and a continuation from last chapter :) also more info and more characters! :D thank you for your interest in this story, and i'm sorry if it seems it's going slow. I had not expected so much plot to pile up, but the romance will get there at some point haha. ha... yes. thank you.

**Chapter 02**

_~One year earlier~_

The first reaction Zenyatta had as he looked at his own reflection was denial.

He could not identify himself with what looked back at him, and he felt a strong, overwhelming need to scream, but his synth fizzled and stuttered without a sound coming through.

What a horrifying sight –he could see it was no dream, though for a moment he felt disconnected with what looked back at him, and the glowing, creepy face plate looking back at him had nothing he could recognise.

The eye slots were green, like molten uranium, and even the forehead array that had been once nine points was now different, and just as green. Even though his visage was just as incapable of expressing emotion as his old one had been, where his original face had been meant to convey softness, a welcoming sight, this one looked evil, mean –the curve above his optical receptors made them appear to be frowning, glaring at the world.

More than that, he looked… frightening.

This was a twisted nightmare, and Zenyatta felt panic settle in.

He could feel the tentacles covering his mouth wriggle lethargically, and each time one brushed against another he shivered, the sensation ghastly where before there had been smooth, immobile metal.

Zenyatta could not run from his appearance, could not run from himself, but even facing what he became took more energy than he had left; he turned around, refusing to think, but everywhere he looked he still was aware of his new appearance.

The orbs circling him could see –his processors were aware of that, and a new part of his brain inspected the data they sent him and analysed it, and through their lazy circles, Zenyatta kept finding his own reflection multiplied from nine different points of view.

Metal a polished purple, a dark cape, chains broken on one end wrapped around his wrists like misshapen restraints, giving him the air of something that had just broken free, a monster that should have remained caged in the depths of the sea.

Zenyatta found himself nowhere to be seen.

With a small cry, Zenyatta pushed the orbs away, but no matter where they spun, they still circled back on him, endlessly.

Torturing him.

There was no escape for his appearance, no way to deny it, and he was reminded every time the tentacles on his face brushed against one another, cool and smooth, and every time Zenyatta shuddered and flinched.

What had happened to him? The question circled endlessly through his brain, slowing down his processes, but he had no answer.

The nanites, obviously, and yet… how? _Why_?

Almost sobbing, Zenyatta attempted to reach for the Iris, only to find nothing in its place, the cut contact a painful wound within his soul, an ache he could not soothe, replaced with something thick and painful –Discord unlike any he’d played with before.

An endless pit of rage, and hurt, and distrust, and he could reach out and touch it just as he had before with the tranquil pool of Harmony, and–

Zenyatta winced away from the feeling, frightened.

Nowhere to run, when you were running from yourself.

He did not wish to be alone, and the sudden urge to see Mondatta surged from his core like a physical pain, a longing twice as strong as it had been before.

Unbidden, the belief that Mondatta would know how to help, would not let him flounder alone through this hell came to him like a respite, pushing down the fear enough that Zenyatta could focus, if only for a moment. He had to find a way to contact his brother, and the Shambali.

They would help him, and he would go back home.

Stumbling down the empty road, a few buildings visible in the distance, Zenyatta clung to what little energy he had left, and hoped to find a way to contact his brother.

He needed help.

***

_~Present time~_

When Genji and Angela joined the rest of their team, they found them in the middle of a battle, and just as Winston had said, the Masked Vigilante was present on site as well.

Lucio and Hana, dressed up in their respective sentai attires, were busy parring the attacks from the Oyster, though its size had doubled since Genji had last seen it.

They were both moving fast, dancing around the monster, yet appeared to be doing not much damage to it, and though they hit it more than it hit back, it did not seem to tire. The Masked Vigilante was standing away from them, relying on his precise aim to shoot sharp fire bullets towards the monster’s feet, making it more difficult for it to stomp and move around, keeping it away from the sentai so it would not land any dangerous blows.

The Masked Vigilante was not part of the sentai rangers, but was an old friend of Winston’s and was doing work as a lone hero, offering his help to whoever was in need. In the past, he and Winston had apparently done some hero business together, long before Winston had decided to fund the sentai. He specialised in long-range attacks, so he was not as good as the sentai were at dealing close damage, but his eyes were sharp, and his aim even sharper.

So was his wit, and Genji appreciated his help.

“Blue sentai, Pink sentai, we’re here!” Angela called out.

Lucio easily avoided a hit from the monster and spun around to look at them, then made a small motion with his hand, summoning his rollerblades, which fizzed to life at the base of his soles. Faster than before, he rushed towards Hana, offering her a hand; she grabbed it without hesitation and he whirled around the monster, who attempted to land a hit on them but couldn’t due to his speed, then abruptly changed directions and spun towards his companions, still holding onto Hana.

Genji noticed she was not in her combat-mech yet, instead dealing close ranged damage with her hand-held weapon.

“Green sentai! White sentai! Finally decided to join in the fun?”

Genji moved to stand at Hana’s side. “How come you aren’t in your mech, Pink sentai?”

“I wanted to, but the monster increased in size, and I thought I would not have as much mobility if I chose to go on attack mode. Lucio suggested to wait until you deigned to join us! You did get here faster than I thought.”

“The Cultist stole our enemy again.” Angela’s voice was sour, though her eyes were trained on the Oyster monster, and though she was wearing a mask, Genji was sure she was frowning underneath it.

“Well, shit,” Lucio murmured, and behind them, the Masked Vigilante snorted, breaking the serious mood.

“Sorry, sorry, not used to you cursing still,” he called out when all four sentai turned to stare at him.

“We’ve been fighting monsters on the same side for a couple months now,” Hana’s voice was amused. “He curses _plenty_.”

The Vigilante’s chuckle was deep in his throat, rich and amused, and it made Genji’s lips twitch upwards as well. They were not yet friends, as they interacted only long enough to deal with monsters, so neither knew the others’ secret identities yet, but they were getting there.

“We’ve got a jar for both of them, you know,” he said as he dashed to the Masked Vigilante, lifting one hand in salute. “One coin for every curse.”

“Useful for pizza Fridays,” he replied, making Genji’s grin grow. “Well then, what are we going to do with this big lug here?”

Lucio stretched his legs, hands clenched into fists. “I think it’s time to roll, Green Sentai! White Sentai, some support would be great!”

Angela nodded and turned her staff to him, a stream of blue light connecting with his frame. “I’m with you!”

Lucio grinned under his mask, pointing both hands down. “Speed boost, activate! Rollers!” a flash of blue energy twirled around the base of his feet, and then he was gone again, dashing towards the monster at full speed, with Angela in tow.

“Green sentai, combine with me!” Hana called out to him, and he nodded.

Hana turned to stare at the monster, who despite having two sentai to keep it occupied was growing larger and larger, clearly sensing that they were about to become dangerous.

“Calling forth my mech, D.Va, Combat Matrix activate!”

Genji watched as the powers that Hana controlled wrapped around her in a pink twirl, flashing as the mech weapon materialized around her –a giant, destructive assault machine with laser beams and an increased offensive power. She had less mobility like that, which was why she relied on a companion to aid her with that, but her attack power made her almost unstoppable.

He waited until she was safely sitting into it before jumping into the air, both he and Hana calling out together, “Sentai rangers, combine!” to activate their shared power.

The Mech’s top half expanded into a neat platform for Genji to land onto, a transparent protective shield activating in front of him together with a small railing so he would not fall off in case Hana had to make a dive or roll in mid-air.

Green and Pink hues mixed together as two arms expanded on either side of the mech, adding a pair of giant mechanical hands holding a sword to the laser beam jets already installed on it, and Genji summoned his blade through his powers, setting in attack mode.

As he positioned himself, ready to do some damage, so did the arms connected to the mech. “Ready, Pink sentai?”

Her smug, excited voice answered through the speakers, echoing around Genji. “Whenever you want, Green sentai!”

“Then let’s go! Let’s mince some monster meat!”

Despite the size of the monster, the battle did not last for long.

The sentai were organized and powerful, and once they worked together, few monsters could stand against them to tell the tale. The Masked Vigilante jumped in to give a hand right away, bursts of fire exploding from his weapon to keep the monster contained where it could not damage too much property, and that helped the sentai finish the job sooner than expected.

Afterwards, they all piled up on top of D.Va’s mech, Hana piloting it towards the base.

They left the Masked Vigilante behind them, and he watched them go, pistol raised in the sky as a salute, until they were gone.

For the first few minutes, all four sentai remained quiet, appreciating the fact that they would not need to walk back home so they could rest after the fight, but Genji had something in his mind, and he knew that if he did not speak up, the others would not.

“I wonder why the Cultist did not choose the Oyster monster instead of the Shrimp.”

That roused Angela’s attention, and she turned towards him. Other than Hana, the others had all reverted to their normal clothes, so he could see the displeased twist of her lips from where he was sitting.

“What does it matter which one he picked? We still only got to defeat one instead of two.”

“Yes but… the Shrimp was tough, but not invincible. Athena sent us to fight that one, and I thought it would put up more of a fight, but…” Genji worried his lower lips.

The fight with the Oyster monster had made him think, and he could not, in the aftermath, say that his fight with the Shrimp had been hard at all. The monster had barely fought back despite its boastful words about being close to defeat them, while the Oyster had been much stronger, and it had taken them the combined effort of all four of them plus their ally to finally exorcise it.

It made no sense for a creature who was amassing an army of monsters to pick the weaker of the two, and the Cultist had shown in the past to have quite a good spy network, though so far he had not discovered their secret identities, which was… good, at least.

If he’d known, he would have attacked them for sure, but so far they had managed to protect their secret enough. Genji was not sure how long that would last, but for now, he thanked whatever luck they had.

Even their base was well masked, so as long as they tried to be sneaky while morphing, it would be alright… he hoped.

“Maybe he’s making sure his followers don’t dare to bite back and betray him to take his place,” Lucio optioned, though he took Genji’s point with a small nod. “Or it’s just he’s picking the ones he will use as sacrifices later on. Just sayin’, he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who has much care for his underlings.”

Genji had to admit that it could be –but for someone creating an entire cult devoted to him, it didn’t seem to make sense to pick weak, disgruntled pawns instead of ones who could offer a fight.

If there was something else brewing under the surface, Genji needed to try and find out, but the Cultist was elusive despite his obvious appearance, and kept vanishing without a trace even with their attempts at tracking him down.

His abilities were mostly unknown, and Genji had no idea if he could even fight, or if the full extent of his powers relied solely on the creepy-ass orbs and their power to make others feel an onslaught of dark emotions.

“Maybe we can get Genji to ask him properly next time,” Hana told them through the mic, her voice openly sarcastic. “He seems like all he wants is talk to that creep.” A beat, then “Not that I’m judging, we all got our kinks–”

“ _Hana_!”

“Oh, c’mon, I did not need to hear that–”

“–I mean, if Genji’s type is the kind with wriggly tentacles around a mouth and ominous bad feelings surrounding him, who am I to judge–”

“Oh my _god_ –”

“ _Hana_ –”

Genji hid his face in his hands, though he was not truly embarrassed –he and Hana often bantered and joked with one another, so he’d expected her to try this angle with him at some point, but…

He could not even fake being angry, when her words rang true.

Despite how dangerous he looked and how, just like the other monsters, he had an aura of evil and darkness surrounding him, Genji still wished to talk with him. He had no idea if it was part of some evil scheme, if he had been bewitched –though how? Nothing the Cultist had done had been singling Genji out in the least– or what else, but… he wanted to.

The instinct to fight the monster was just as great, though, and the two battled inside him quite fiercely, with none of the two ever gaining the upper end.

After all, the Cultist did look frightening, in a way most other monsters, who were merely grotesque or ugly, could not manage, and his powers were subtler, scarier; it was obvious he was at an entirely different level from them, and Genji was wary of him despite everything.

Lucio shifted a little to press one comforting hand on Genji’s shoulder. “Buddy, I know you think the best of everyone, but it’s a monster we’re talking about. We have enough proof of his wrongdoings, how many people he attacked, and there were even a lot of casualties, so it’s not like he’s pristine and innocent here. We ought to protect this city, not walk into obvious traps just because you want to try and figure out a monster’s motivations.”

“Lucio is right. It could be anything, even him wanting to take over another monster’s territory, and it wouldn’t concern us.” Angela’s expression, usually so sweet, was hardened in determination. “You just do not try to talk it out with them, Genji –that’s not how it works. It will only leave you distraught when they don’t act humane. They _aren’t_ human.”

And of course Genji understood –he knew far too well that Angela herself had lost someone important during the monster uprising that had started around three years before for unknown circumstances. Her younger brother had been a victim of a monster attack around one year into the conflict, when the monsters that kept appearing had doubled in numbers.

The creature that had killed Engel had been found on the scene afterwards, holding in its claws ripped shreds of his clothes and blood on the floor, on the walls and on the furniture, and on the monster too. It had lashed at Angela, who had been the one to find him, before disappearing.

Angela was not a vengeful person –her work with the sentai was so that she could prevent more casualties, so that no other family would go through what she had– but Genji still worried about her, and what would happen if that monster was to be found again.

Well, unless it had been slain already by some other group of vigilante heroes somewhere else. He knew Angela kept tabs and contacts with many people around the nation, others who were in similar situations, cities swarmed with monsters, but… he had no idea how likely that would be.

So far, many nations were under similar assaults. It was usually big cities, so rural towns were safer than not, and with the aid from the UN and various private and public research groups, people from all over the world attempted to find a way to stop the monsters and finally end this uprising.

Still it seemed like none had any luck for now, and without an insight on their nature, it was even harder.

Genji knew some groups had offered to capture monsters to use as specimen for experiments, but despite the monsters being ruthless and evil, most had ruled out that option, as the monsters were, in the end, capable of thought and speech, and it would be inhuman to experiment on them unless one willingly stepped forwards –and obviously none would.

He did wonder, though, if perhaps such experiments were conducted anyway, in privacy and away from those who would stop them. If they were, Genji knew nothing of it.

The thought still sent a shiver down his back, regardless –the idea that it could happen, even to one of those monsters…

Genji fought those monsters almost daily. He faced them on the battlefield, prevented them from harming civilians, and then struck back and exorcised them; of all people, he should agree with more drastic methods of dealing with monsters, with all the damage and death they caused, and yet…

The sentai used their specific powers to weaken, incapacitate and wound the monsters, and then employed the weapon Winston had devised specifically for this purpose, and channelling their powers through it, they sent the monsters back to whatever universe they belonged to.

Winston had explained how it worked, back when Genji had joined the sentai project, though it had been a lot of specific terminology and stuff he was not that good at, so most of it had gone over his brain, but he knew the basics of it.

Most heroes had no similar help, but the ones who were under the tutelage of the UN employed Winston’s machines to exorcise the creatures.

Some monsters were just nuisances, barely able to do real damage, and those ended up sent back without much trouble, but… there were those who ended up eliminated instead. Those were the monsters who caused the most damage, who were dangerous to the point of having killed or assaulted humans, who could not be allowed to be free, not if there was a chance they could be back.

There were monsters who ended up hunted down by lone vigilantes or hired mercenaries, and those ended up dead regardless, but there was a difference between ending an opponent’s life due to their ferocity and experiment on them against their will… and Genji did not wish to cross that line.

As there was no understanding about how the monsters arrived on this plane of existence in the first place, the fact that they knew how to send them back was at least enough, for now, but Winston had a lot of work to do with his colleagues still, with little progress.

Genji thought about the Cultist, and instantly felt sick at the thought that even he could be bested and then used as a lab rat to understand how his powers worked.

It was a given that if challenged, the sentai would attempt to defeat and then terminate the Cultist, as he was too powerful to be allowed a second chance…

And yet.

The fact that the Cultist seemed to be intent in staying in Genji’s city at least allowed him a little more leeway on the matter of dealing with him. Even if he started a war with whatever army he was collecting, it would be their duty to fight against him and make sure he could not do any more harm.

So if Genji chose to attempt a contact, it would be his responsibility and his alone to deal with the probable fallout.

It was not much of a consolation, in the face of the fame he’d made for himself, but it filled Genji with a sense of duty and determination, to think that this would be their enemy to best, and no one else’s.

***

Sitting on the edge of a tall, abandoned skyscraper, Zenyatta observed the city below him.

With the sky bleeding orange and the sun about to set, he felt safe enough to come out of hiding, sure that he would not be bothered, the cool air of the late afternoon pleasant against his ever heated chassis.

He only had six of his mala on him and they circled around his neck slowly, while the rest was off, observing, gathering information which was sent to his processors to be analysed and compiled.

A year since the change had allowed Zenyatta to become accustomed to the rush of extra input data his orbs gave him, but at first it had been almost overwhelming to be connected with nine different cameras at the same time. His capacity was not that of a human so he had adapted, but that did not mean it had been easy.

At first, he had kept the orbs on himself all the time, only sending one out to serve as a scout whenever he moved, but soon he had realised the usefulness of having nine he could spread around to gather info, and had started to use them as much as he could to minimize having to leave the safety of his hiding spots.

They were quite useful, yet Zenyatta still would give that up, if only to see, once again, the familiar shape of his mala as they had once been.

He sighed deep in his synth, and straightened his back.

This city was beautiful from where he was sitting, and the sight allowed him some respite, helping to put his soul at ease.

Skyscrapers as far as he eye could see, with slowly moving flying machines into the distance, not too many to make the view unsightly, and down below, a sea of metal and green alike, in a beautiful, breath-taking mix.

This view, and so many more like this, was why Zenyatta had left the comfort of the Shambali monastery at the start of his journey, with the promise of so many things to learn and see with his own optical receptors rather than second hand through other people’s tales.

After his change, though, he’d had limited options.

At first, he had only decided to stop in this place by chance; he had discussed for a long time with his brother where he should go, what he would have to do, and searching out in bigger cities where more monsters would come had seemed like the best idea.    

They had no idea where to start, only that they _had_ to start somewhere.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Zenyatta had been infected by something, his entire structure changed from scratch, twisted and reworked in ways he had not expected could be possible prior to it happening to him. Nanomachines of this calibre, hi-tech and self-replicating, were something he’d never encountered before.

He had no idea why he had been targeted, or by who, or to what purpose.

It could have been personal or it could have been by chance, but the fact remained that Zenyatta had changed, and was different, and had to re-learn everything about himself in the span of a few weeks while being hunted down and assaulted.

For months, he had fought, ran and tried to seek information, at times even facing monsters and talking with them. Some had been more or less forthcoming, as they’d viewed him as one of them, not as an enemy, but none had answers, and most hadn’t wanted to bother with him regardless.

Bigger cities had been a gamble, but one he had needed to take.

Some cities had heroes, others had none, and ultimately Zenyatta had wanted to stay in one that was unprotected, to avoid their attention, but in the end, he had settled for this city –in its beauty, it was one of the most plagued by monsters, and though it had enough heroes to ensure the citizen were protected, well…

Zenyatta had been fascinated by the sentai.

The tech they used held traces of something else, something Zenyatta could feel prickle under his fingertips, and through his senses if he reached out.

They had it buried within them, used it to fight the monsters but it was almost subdued, though the White sentai could reach out to it quite well, harnessing it and using it to both aid and heal her companions…

It was something old yet new, a mix of magic and technology, but there was also something else.

And then…

And then, Zenyatta had watched the Green sentai fight.

Almost reckless, at first he’d used his powers just as much as the others had –sparingly, only when he needed to deliver a final blow– except that…

There had been one fight that Zenyatta had witnessed from afar, when he had felt the rattling of the sentai’s spirit vibrate through the space between them like a physical blow, and within its ripples, Zenyatta had felt a kinship, a feeling not unlike that of the Iris.

The sentai had harnessed the strength of a _dragon_ –a spirit that for most was a mythical best– entrenched in ethereal powers, powerful, and was using its aid in his battles.

Zenyatta had not recognized the feeling because he had kept himself separate from the sentai, not wishing to engage the heroes in a fight when they did not know who he was, nor would they understand, so he had missed the familiarity of such a creature… until then.

Even from such a distance, away from the fight, it was the first time in a year that Zenyatta had felt close to the Iris again.

Shut off from its touch, unable to reach out, no matter how much he tried, too far from Mondatta and unable to meet with him in order to keep the Shambali safe, Zenyatta had truly felt abandoned by the Iris, but here, in that moment, Zenyatta had felt an echo of it in the power within the Dragon, and his soul had been soothed, a feeling not unlike drinking something hot in a chilling day after going thirsty for too long.

Zenyatta had been unable to look away, mesmerized, as a part of his soul attempted to reach out, as if he could, by proxy, touch the Iris and be complete again… though it had not happened.

His longing had stalled him, made him forget everything in his need to feel, and then he had watched the battle unfold.

He had felt, through that distant brush, the sentai’s determination, and the will to help, protect and challenge himself, the exhilaration of the battle, the connection he had with the dragon within him, the desire to be a change to the world with his own strength.

The battle had been difficult, with his three companions incapacitated, and the Green sentai had fought alone –the situation so dire Zenyatta had thought to join, if only for a moment.

He knew it would not work –he would reveal himself to them, and nothing would change, even if he aided the sentai to win, but…

Zenyatta had seen other heroes be defeated by monsters in the past. Some he had stepped in to help, only to be pushed away. Some he had been unable to save, getting there too late.

Here, and now, he had been ready to expose himself for he had the chance to help and Zenyatta would never hesitate–

And then the sentai had summoned his dragon.

Appearing in the air above him, drenching the sentai’s body with its light, powerful and majestic, it had been like Green sentai had been born anew, though bleeding and battered, but not broken.

In such a battle, against all odds, the sentai had fought back with all he had, despite the dangers, despite the injuries, despite the fact that he could have died there, alone, protecting his teammates.

Green sentai had fought back and had won.

After that, Zenyatta chose to stay.

It was not a decision born simply due to his longing for the Iris, though. He did wish to feel its touch again –every day, always, the pain of its absence was like a wound– but the dragon’s connection to the Iris was a mere echo. Its existence was linked closely to nature and its powers touched upon the Iris, but it was not, and never would be, the Iris itself.

Even if he happened to see Genji harness its powers again, it would do nothing to Zenyatta except make his core burn for something that was not his to take, not anymore.

No –he had decided to stay because for the long months he’d spent traveling in his new form, Zenyatta had started to fear losing his grasp on what was left of the omnic he had once been.

Six months were a lot of time to spend on his own, with the only contact he had with someone else being the calls he had with his brother, who was too far to help, so far…

He had not wavered, but the despair of being truly alone, disconnected and changed, with no help in sight, had worn him down little by little, and even his soul had been afraid that with time, he would lose sight of himself.

It had not happened yet, but the fear had been there, and… in that desperate sentai fighting against all odds, Zenyatta had seen a flicker of light, and had felt a connection there.

Unknowingly, the sentai had offered Zenyatta something he’d needed without knowing it –a reminder that he could overcome his own battles, even those he felt were lost, if he kept on fighting.

The sentai, acclaimed hero who fought against monsters, protecting the city, had in that moment become Zenyatta’s own hero.

And now, over six months later, Zenyatta had started to see this city, for how limited his view of it could be, a bit as his home.

Many things had changed since he had established himself here –he had met others who were like him, misshapen creatures twisted and turned into monsters seemingly without reason or cause, he had started protecting them, seeking them out, stopping the sentai from defeating them…

There was, in the end, another purpose for his presence here.

Maybe the Iris could not reach for him anymore like this, but it still had its ways to guide Zenyatta, after all.

The sentai were some of the ones who refused to kill monsters unless they hurt people, and instead used some sort of tech to cast the monsters away, but… if the choice for such creatures was either defeat and exile back to wherever they came from or death…

What did happen to monsters who were humans once, or those who had been omnics instead?

Were they truly sent to the monsters’ realm, wherever that might be? Or was their last vestige of humanity what kept them from it, and sent them to their death instead?

Zenyatta had seen it, before he could stop it from happening, only once –and he still had no answer.

Yet it meant no one else knew, either.

Humans and omnics alike ran from monsters to protect themselves, and it made attempting to connect with them impossible. The aura that monsters had kept everyone else away, and those who had been turned were the same. Their own families refused to listen, so none of them had anywhere to go. Zenyatta sought out those he could find and sent them all to the Shambali, the only ones who were able to withstand the sudden, irrational fear through their meditation and by touching the Iris.

Since Zenyatta had realised he was not alone, he had vowed to himself not to let the sentai –or any hero– catch a transformed monster ever again.

It did not matter that the sentai had no way of knowing that some of the monsters they fought against were not really monsters at all, but in the end it was not important that they did not know, as Zenyatta could not reach out to them, even if he still tried.

Zenyatta knew. And since he did, it was his duty to make sure no hero could slay an innocent, even if they did not know.

It was a weight he would not allow the sentai to bear.

Zenyatta had decided to help those who could not be otherwise helped, even if that meant gaining the fame of a monster collector –of a Cultist, growing an army of acolytes to defeat humans and omnics alike.

It did not matter if none of the ‘monsters’ he collected were ever seen again afterwards, or if Zenyatta, hiding himself and using this fame to his own devices, had struck on other monsters as well to prevent them from attacking the sentai.

And if he could not do anything else, if he was destined to see his own fame as a monster grow, and others to only see him as something to be defeated… well then.

It would be alright.

The more attention he gathered, the more dangerous he grew to be, the more people would come to investigate. Maybe then, one of them would know something… anything… pertaining to what had happened to him and to so many others.

For this, Zenyatta would keep fighting, and would accept even the worst accusations, and the lies, and the fake proof that was so easy to gather up, when none of the heroes knew better.

Even if he had to do it on his own, Zenyatta would find a way to turn back to how he was, and with him, all the others.

It was all a matter of _when_.


	4. Chapter 03

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's... more feels here. (but also: A LITTLEST BIT OF RELEVANT PLOT MAYBE)

**Chapter 03**

“I’m going out,” Genji called above his shoulder, shuffling on his jacket as he moved to the entrance of their base.

“Where to?” Of the others casually hanging out in the sitting room, only Angela did look up at him, though she looked like she was barely aware he was there to begin with.

Hana was busy playing one of her videogames, fingers flicking expertly on the console handle, Lucio was tapping with one finger against the table, earphones on and a pile of papers in front of him, composing a new song, and Angela was idly flipping through the pages of her thick medical book, studying for her next exam.

 “No more snacks,” he answered, yawning and covering his mouth with the back of his hand. “If we’re still up for that movie night, we need some good shit.”

“Then don’t forget to get soda!” Hana called out, her eyes never straying from the screen of her videogame, where she was soundly beating the shit out of some poor sod from across the continent. “Last time it barely lasted through half the movie!”

“Not my fault you and Angela started to challenge each other,” he fired back. “Don’t do it again and it will last till the end.”

“Booooring! Where’s the fun in that?”

Genji snickered to himself and left.

It was quite a nice day, and Genji felt the warmth of the sun on his skin as he walked out of their operation base and across the street; they were lucky that there was a 7/11 open on the same block, and the workers there were used to seeing him coming at any time of the day or of the night to buy food and snacks, and even kept some of his favourites for him –being a regular had all kinds of perks, after all.

When he got to the 7/11, though, he found a small crowd of people surrounding it, all mumbling and talking excitedly to one another, and Genji slowed down his pace, approaching them and straining his ears to listen for eventual dangers.

“What a horrible thing, really,” one of the bystanders muttered, lips pulled down into a frown. The omnic standing next to him nodded slowly, the three-dot forehead array blinking a steady orange.

“Can’t believe it happened to them, she seemed such a nice person…”

“Hey, did something happen?” Genji walked closer to them, standing on his toes to try and peek above the heads of the people in front of him. Since he was not exactly the tallest person around, it made it difficult, and they did not seem to want to move. “Why the crowd?”

“Oh, it’s you, kid!” the man turned around, and Genji vaguely recognised him as another regular. “Do you remember one of the workers there, Stephanie?” at Genji’s nod, the man continued “she disappeared with all their income from this past week. She left them in quite a pinch.”

That surprised him. He knew Stephanie a bit, since he was a regular at the 7/11 and he liked to chat with people. At first he’d tried to flirt with her, but when she’d told him she was happily taken he’d backed off, though that had started a bit of cheerful back and forth between them. He… could not believe she would do something like that.

His emotions must have been obvious, because the man and the omnic shared a knowing look and nodded. “Yeah, it was a surprise for us as well. It happened during the shift change this early morning, when the owner comes by to collect the money and bring it to the bank. She was there waiting for him, stole the money and ran. The owner couldn’t stop her.”

Dismayed and baffled, Genji could only shake his head.

The people in front of him finally shifted enough that he could see what was going on. The 7/11 was closed down, but the owner was standing in front of the door talking to two policemen with one of his other employees, a tall guy with a scruffy beard and a slight slouch.

A part of Genji felt guilty –he was supposed to be the city’s protector, and not just against monsters but also to help with robbers and thieves, and this 7/11 was so close to the base he should have realised…– but then he forcibly shook his head. He couldn’t have known, nor could he have prevented it, if everything happened so quickly in the early morning.

Genji could not do everything, even if it made him feel angry at himself.

The employee took notice of him and his bright green hair and his lips quirked up in a small smile; with a polite nod to his boss and the policemen, he went around them and moved to join Genji.

“Oi, Genji, good to see you!”

“Same for me, Jesse!” Genji smiled, though his lips tilted down in a small grimace a second later. “I heard what happened. That must… suck.”

“Yeah, there goes my weekly salary I guess,” Jesse shrugged, a small roll of his shoulders, as if to downplay the situation. “She took all the cash and the envelops with our pay too.”

Genji bit down on his lower lip. “If you need anything…”

“You’re a darling, but I’ll manage. I’m good at sorting my finances, and we’re not closing down just because of that, so… I still have a job.”

Genji sighed but nodded, knowing that Jesse would not allow him to help unless he was truly inconvenienced.

He and Jesse had not been friends for long –just a few months, ever since he’d started working at the 7/11, but he was a nice, easy going guy and Genji enjoyed hanging out with him. They even had the same taste in men, and that always helped.

“You’re juggling two part-times, I don’t know how you can do that,” he murmured, still worried.

“You do what you gotta, Genji. So, if you were here to drop some good cash on us, fat chance. We’re closed. But I can walk you to the rival 7/11 a block away if you want. Worked there for a few months before coming here.”

“You’ve worked everywhere, Jesse.”

“Not everywhere, yet. When I hit the big ones you’ll be the first to know.”

“I’ll expect you to offer me a beer then.”

Jesse smirked and punched him in the shoulder, and Genji smirked back.

Their trip to the other 7/11 only took them a little while, and as they walked back towards Genji’s base –or as Jesse knew of it, Genji’s apartment, which he shared with some housemates– they chatted idly, though it was obvious to Genji’s keen eyes that despite his apparent ease, Jesse was still a little too stiff, his slouch even more pronounced than usual, so he tried his best to cheer his friend up.

That is, until he spotted something weird with the corner of an eye, and froze mid-step in the middle of the street, a small shiver running down his back.

“Oi, Genji, what’s wrong? You look pale.”

Genji blinked, and focused once again on Jesse, but it took him a couple seconds to come up with an answer. “I… I remembered I had to do something important and I totally forgot and Hana will skin me alive if I don’t… get her soda!” the realisation hit him, as he had honestly forgotten about it until that instant, but it was also a convenient excuse. “You still up for a gaming night later this week?”

“Uh? Sure thing. Have nothing else to do until my second shift so I’ll just head home. I’ll text you at some point later today. Better not get that lady angry with you, I hear she can bite really hard.”

Unable to restrain a wince at that, Genji nodded. He did not really waste time checking if Jesse was going, turning around and dashing down the street, apparently heading back to the 7/11 only to take a sharp turn once he was past a corner, slipping into one of the side streets and hiding behind a trash can, out of sight.

He glanced around, and once he was sure nobody was there, he called forth his morphing powers and switched to his sentai suit.

“Yosh,” he murmured to himself, feeling a shiver of anticipation run down his back.

If what he’d seen was real, he could not approach it as Genji, and of course, he could not do it when in Jesse’s company either, but now he was alone and did not need to worry.

The street was still empty, thankfully, and there was no sign of Jesse anywhere, which was a relief. Genji hesitated only for a split second before he moved to the side of the street, easily vaulting over a tall fence and into the garden of someone’s house.

To his excitement –and a little bit of wariness too– what he’d seen earlier was still there, comfortably wrapped into the paws of a slobbery, snoozing dog.

One of the Cultist’s creepy orbs.

He had no idea how it had been caught like that –the dog was sleeping, one floppy cheek pressed against the round surface, and appeared undisturbed by the deep, unsettling aura of the orb, which was blinking slowly at the sky, not moving much– but it was nothing short of a small miracle for Genji.

Winston had wanted to get his hands on one of the orbs for months, ever since seeing what they could do, but the Cultist was jealous of them, and though he seemed to never part from them, Genji had enough suspicions that he used them for intel, and to find one like this…

Definitely lucky –or it would be if he could catch it.

The orb was probably sending information back to the Cultist, and if he caught it, then the monster would know. If he could track the orb back and Genji brought it with him to his base, then he would give its location away… unless their masking protections worked better than Genji knew. He was not sure. Still, even giving away the general area of their base would be bad so… how could Genji prevent that?

Genji looked down at his hands. He had the bag of snacks, maybe he could use it, and…

That would work, yes. At least for now.

He inched forwards slowly, tiny shuffles so not to alert the dog, who kept on sleeping without taking notice of him, and moved closer and closer, slowly, biting his lip under his mask, tense, getting ready…

The orb’s eye flickered his way, but it was too late –Genji struck, his hand a blur as he grabbed the orb and trapped it inside the bag with his snacks, tying the opening quickly and then pressing it hard against his stomach, his heart thundering in his chest.

“I… I did it! I caught it!” incredulous yet triumphant, Genji allowed himself a moment of utter joy, jumping from one foot to the other as a nervous laugh left his lips.

The noise was enough that the dog did wake up then, and upon seeing a weird masked individual bouncing at his side, he did what any other disgruntled dog would have done. He barked loudly, growling at Genji, and he stopped bouncing immediately to step back from the dog.

“Easy, easy there pup! I’m the good guy! I saved you from the evil orb!”

It seemed like the dog did not agree. He kept growling at him, lowering his front and shuffling around, tail held high and stiff.

Genji thought it would be best to back away slowly, and when he was far enough from the growling dog, he jumped out of the small garden and high-tailed away, still giddy about what he’d just managed to do.

Instead of running on the street, and risk being recognised by people as a sentai, Genji jumped up a wall and ended up on top of a tall building, sitting on the edge and clutching the bag to his chest.

He had no idea what to do, but he did not want to risk opening the bag to look at the orb, just in case it ended up recording something that could give him away to the Cultist.

For a moment, Genji entertained the thought to keep the orb to himself –maybe let it go and follow it back to its owner, and then confront the Cultist alone, challenge him maybe, fight him… but then he shook his head, not wishing to go down that road.

He knew what happened when he faced things on his own, and he knew how much pain it caused to his friends. He had learned his lesson.

Still, he had no idea how to proceed.

He shuffled with the bag for a few seconds, and wondered if he should peek inside at the orb, and after another long moment of hesitation, his curiosity peaked enough that he unwrapped the edge of the bag from his hand, and opened it, just a fraction.

The orb inside did not move. It felt like a dead weight but Genji was not fooled, so he kept a tight hold of it through the bag and then managed to get a good view of it.

It was the first time he’d seen one this close, and it was just as creepy as it seemed from afar –only perhaps… worse.

The eyes on its surface were… not quite gelatinous, they did not truly appear to be ‘real’ eyes, and for a moment, Genji felt a wave of relief. That also seemed to dispel the notion that the orbs were part of the Cultist’s body, only separated by some sort of monster magic.

If they were not magic, though, what were they?

There was a flimsy layer of something thin covering the eyes, and Genji squinted through his mask, only to realise it was probably something like a polymer, a mix of plastic and glass perhaps, or something different but…

Mechanic.

The orbs were mechanic.

Yet, the eyes looked incredibly realistic, and when one of them focused on him, pupil constricting, Genji had to restrain a shiver, instead attempting to look defiant and aggressive, though he knew it would not convey much through his mask.

He was confident that he could move quickly before the Cultist could follow him, and besides, he was someplace high, so the eye could only see a small piece of a building and the sky, other than his mask.

It would be fine.

Hopefully.

Genji focused his attention on the orb again, daring to meet the focused stare of the eye head on. If this was mechanic, it did not make any sense; monsters never had anything on them that looked like a machine –no guns, no lasers, no complex weaponry. They were usually attacking people or places with parts of their bodies, like claws or teeth, or at most, a modified rudimental weapon like a blade or a scythe.

This… this was different. This was mechanical, and exceedingly advanced.

As Genji observed the eye flicker from one side to the other, one edge of the orb flickered and frizzled, and he scrambled to cover it with the bag again, afraid it would disintegrate in his hands, only to see…

The orb was moving slightly. Or well… its surface was. Shifting and shuffling like water, or like sand, or maybe even like sand covered with tiny ants.

At once, his eyes widened in shock, recognizing what he was seeing. These were nanomachines.

But… how?

Hastily shoving the orb back into the depths of his bag, Genji closed it as tightly as possible and held onto it with both hands.

Impossible.

If a monster had this much technology… how?

The Cultist had appeared already holding the orbs with him, and had used them as if he was familiar with them, so he’d probably acquired them somewhere in the past, but… from who? Who could have allowed a monster to have nanomachines?

A small sound broke Genji from his reverie.

“Genji? Where are you man? You left for the store _ages_ ago!”

Startled, he almost dropped the bag. “Lucio! I have news!”

***

Zenyatta felt the ripples coming from one of his missing orbs and paused mid-step.

He had been walking quietly through the sewers, in one of the abandoned parts of the city undergrounds, when it happened.

There were parts of the city that had been partially or almost fully destroyed or damaged by the first monsters attacking, years in the past, unstable after far too many attacks, and Zenyatta had sought them out, too dangerous for people to live as nobody dared to come around, so he could use them as a temporary shelter.

It was not ideal, but it was safe.

He kept each and every one of his orbs monitored, receiving every few minutes a constant update on what they saw, but that one orb had ended up caught by a playful dog, and Zenyatta, not wishing to disturb it as it slept after playing and chewing on the newfound toy, had allowed it to keep the mala.

Yet, that proved to be a mistake.

Not too long after he had received the last stream of images of a dog’s nose in close quarters, the orb had started sending weird images of food and fabric and plastic, and it had taken Zenyatta no time to realise that someone had caught his orb and placed it in… a bag with food, apparently.

Mostly snacks, but they looked like an interesting collection.

That did not fix his problem, though. His orb had been caught by someone, and this… did not bode well for him.

He only had three on himself, the other six in various areas of the city, monitoring everything from safe spots, but even one less orb proved to be difficult to fix, and he could not just go outside and retrieve it on his own.

Still busy considering his options, Zenyatta assumed his usual meditative pose, index and thumb pressed together, the remaining orbs slowly circling his neck with a soft hum; if anything, at least their sound had not changed, and he could still allow his mind to ease through meditation.

Hit attempt to calm himself was, unfortunately, short-lived.

Something was walking through the empty tunnels ahead of him, and in the silence, their footsteps were as loud as a stampede.

Zenyatta tensed, and sent one of his orbs ahead.

The dark did not bother his optical receptors, nor the eyes on his mala, but he had not expected what the orb reported to him seconds later, the image clear through his sensors.

A human.

It was a short, buff human woman, wringing her hands together and looking apprehensively around, and then, trailing behind her, so quiet it could almost go unnoticed, was a monster.

Suddenly apprehensive, Zenyatta took three steps before more images filtered through his processors, making the picture clearer for him as his senses were assaulted with discord and pain and anxiety, all coming not just from the human ahead, but also the monster.

It was clear, then, what he was seeing –but not why.

Slowly, with measured footsteps, Zenyatta advanced towards the human and the monster following her.

The monster was the first to see him coming –as it seemed obvious, considering the tunnels were not lit, and the human only had the light from her phone to let her see where she was going– and it hissed something at the woman, who instantly froze.

Her hands clenched together, her breathing harsh, the woman remained completely still, eyes wide in fear, and the monster slithered forwards, grotesque and mismatched, one half of the body with paws and short, cropped fur, and the other a hardened bug shell.

“Don’t touch her,” the monster hissed, and the voice sounded almost girlish, though it had a strong echo to it.

“I do not plan to,” he answered just as quietly.

There was a long, tense silence.

“What are you doing here, in my domain?” deciding to play it safe, Zenyatta allowed his orbs to shine an otherworldly green, illuminating the walls and the metal and the stone surrounding them with a sickly glow. “This is not your place.”

“I–” the woman squeaked, and Zenyatta watched with a flicker of sadness as she punctured the back of her hand with her nails in a fierce attempt not to tremble. “I’m here to propose an ex-exchange!”

Zenyatta did not speak further, allowing the woman some time to calm down and explain, but he was curious, and rather perplexed, and he hoped, against all hope, that the woman did not mean for him to harm someone else, though… the monster behind her spoke of an entirely different story.

“I have… I have money! A lot of it!” she scrambled to grab a small bag attached to her hips, and with trembling hands, she extracted a few envelopes full of money, which Zenyatta observed with shock, though none of it reflected anywhere in his appearance. “I… I don’t know if you need it, or… I’ll buy anything you want! Anything! But I… I want…”

Her voice seemed to falter, and then the monster advanced towards him. They passed the woman, who seemed to flinch, minutely, before steeling herself, but the monster did not appear to notice –or if they did, they did not show it– and stepped in front of the woman, between her and Zenyatta.

A protective stance, as far as Zenyatta was aware.

“She wants to ask you to lead us out of the city from down here,” the monster hissed, raw and just as unsure as human behind them was. “We’ll get you anything. I don’t care. I just–” they turned around, enough to look at the woman, before twisting their neck to glance again at Zenyatta. “Away from here. Somewhere safe.”

“How did you know where to find me… if it was me, specifically, that you were seeking?” instead of addressing their request, Zenyatta, asked his most pressing question instead.

“I…” the monster fought with themselves for a second, gritting their teeth, gnawing at the lower lip –a mix of reptile scales and fur, fangs of different sizes– before shaking their head. “No matter! We know! We found you! We won’t tell anyone, but we need to leave! If you don’t… if you don’t want to help, we’ll…” they paused, suddenly aware that their tone sounded more like a threat now, but empty, too empty of any sort of leverage, and then their eyes flickered with an idea. “We’ll find the sentai and tell them!”

Zenyatta hummed, softly.

In the back of his mind, he received a quick image of Green Sentai’s mask peeking from the edges of a bag that contained his missing orb, and he filed the information away, though he could only see little fragments of the city, not enough to deduce where he was.

Unfortunate.

“So you came here, knowing where to find me, attempting to pay for… a service… from me.” he paused, the tentacles on his face wriggling slowly. “With no plan B. Alone. A human and a monster, together. And then you threaten me, and do not think I could just end you there, without allowing you out from here, and no one… no one would be any wiser.”

He saw both stiffen, and the monster’s fur rose to its end, a hissing sound coming from their throat. The woman, frightened, her breathing quick and uneven, took a trembling step back.

“Yet you are at your wits’ end,” he continued, his tone soft, quiet. “With no other option, scared, and… with money that does not belong to you, either.”

“What do… what do you even care?!”

Zenyatta’s shoulders relaxed, minutely. “I do, because if you had not found me –if you had been seeking truly the monster this city calls the Cultist, he would have destroyed you.” They both flinched, too scared, too frozen to even move. He continued, “But there will be no need of money for something I can easily grant.”

He knew he’d shocked both of them, because the monster’s fur flattened instantly.

“I… wha– you… you accept?!” the woman looked so surprised, though he could feel from her waves of hope flickering towards him, almost intoxicating after all that Discord. “Without… both of us! I won’t let her become one of your minions!”

“I have no minions.” He allowed a small flicker of amusement to colour his tone, his tentacles writhing a little faster to show his mirth. “I assure you, that is merely bad press.”

He advanced towards them, and the monster was instantly on defense again, hissing loudly enough for the sound to echo around them, but all Zenyatta did was stop in front of her. “Where do you intend to go, once away from this city? There are just as many dangers out there as you could find here. Nothing is any better anywhere.”

“Yes, it is! Here they think… and then I just…” wringing her hands together, the woman took a step backwards, then forwards, forcing herself to fight the fear. “Anywhere! Somewhere nobody will give a fuck about a human and a monster travelling together!”

“You stand here, so afraid, so scared, and yet you still refuse to back down.” Zenyatta, mournful, turned to the monster. “It is admirable she is still standing here. We unfortunately have something that both humans and omnics find undesirable to face, and as such, it is their nature to run and hide, rather than stay and listen. Very few can withstand the onslaught of such aura we have, and yet… your friend is here with you, to support you. She has…” one of his orbs blinked, focusing on the envelopes full of money, “… stolen to pay another monster, because humans would never agree… so that you both could run. Yet, away from here nothing will change. You will find opposition anywhere you choose to go, and you would end up hiding, homeless and alone.”

The monster was staring at him, both eyes narrowed in speculation, both sides of her face showing the same emotion –a calculating look that she was focusing on him. Zenyatta waited.

“You are nothing like what I expected,” she finally murmured. “You know lots of things and you’re smart and you say the truth, but here… I’m…”

“You changed, and you are afraid… but she’s still at your side.” Zenyatta watched the two and felt their shock wash all over him again, and allowed himself a soft pleased sigh. “You are lucky.”

“How… how did…” the woman appeared conflicted, wanting to run to the monster yet at the same time back away, but it was the monster who reached the correct conclusion first.

“You’re… you’re like _me_!” all at once, her wariness melted away, the confusion turning into a sharper focus. “I can’t… you’re not a real monster?! There’s more like me?!”

With a soft chuckle, Zenyatta nodded, and stepped back. He chose to address her, to allow the woman some respite, though he knew his appearance was still creepy enough that she would never truly relax, not until he was gone. “Indeed. Though not quite like you. I was an omnic before, while you were a human.”

The monster’s shoulders trembled, relief and shock and sadness making her shake, and she covered her mouth with her scaly hand, breathing hard into it. Zenyatta allowed her a few seconds to calm down, all the while monitoring the situation of his missing orb.

He could easily recall it, make it come back by slipping through Green sentai’s lack grip, but… he did not wish to.

Zenyatta could not feel the dragon’s presence through the orb with just this touch, but he wondered, not for the first time, if allowing the sentai to have a mala could perhaps aid them in finding the true extent of his curse.

Of course, if he’d offered them one they would have refused, thought it a trap, but like this, maybe…

Zenyatta had thought about giving up his idea to get the sentai to help, at least the way he had been doing until then. Green Sentai had almost looked like he considered listening, but in the end, he had not –and his companions had pushed him into refusing.

There was nothing there for Zenyatta to further pursue, so it would be better to give that up, but this…

This was a different angle he could try.

“My… my name is Alexandra. And… she’s Stephanie,” the monster’s voice snapped Zenyatta’s focus back on the task at hand. “She’s my… she’s my girlfriend. We were meant to get married next June, you know.”

Zenyatta felt a wave of grief fill him at the thought of how that might have felt –watch her future ripped away from her hands by a curse befalling her.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, and his voice conveyed all his grief, so honestly that even Stephanie, wrapped in shock and still away from them, was startled by it, her shoulders tensing. “It must have been recent, is that right?”

“Y… yes. It happened last week. I… I was tending to my plants at home and then… and then it happened and I was so scared, and I knew nobody would want to talk to me, and I wanted to run but then… Stephanie found me, and even though she was afraid she… she recognised my voice, and remained, and we talked a lot, and we had no other choice–” now that she felt a connection, her voice came out louder, in a sudden rush to get all her story out. “She stole money from where she works. We watched the news, but did not know where to go or how to run, and my family kept calling and they were planning on visiting and… we panicked.”

Alexandra’s shoulders shook, and then much to Zenyatta’s surprise, Stephanie stepped forwards, hands trembling, and pressed one hand, very gently, on her girlfriend’s shoulder.

“Alexandra is really smart,” her voice shook, but she kept her eyes trained on Zenyatta as she spoke, as if to challenge him. “She figured out we needed a plan. She thought… you had your underlings, and on the news most of your sightings were on this part of the city, and she… she used to work for the metro line, a few years ago. So she figured you were hiding down here. I thought… if we could offer you something, maybe…” she trailed off. “We had no other option, and if people found out about Alexandra, they would… I couldn’t! I couldn’t let them!”

Zenyatta knew he could not reach out to her as he would in the past, and instead remained motionless, head tilted down in respect for her pain, and watched as her girlfriend turned around and hesitantly wrapped her arms around her.

Stephanie stiffened, but then relaxed in the hug, and the two held each other quietly, trembling but not crying.

“I will help you get out from here.” He promised, and the two turned to look at him, faces so different yet both betraying hope, and relief. “But I will offer something more. Once away from here, seek the Shambali. They are aware of my… circumstances. They will not turn you away.”

“The Shambali?” they looked at one another, tentative in their hope. “What can they do?”

“Offer you shelter where others will reject you. Unfortunately, there is no known cure yet, but at least there no one will chase or attempt to separate you. Also the Shambali can actively fight the aura we emit, and they can help you strengthen your will against it,” he turned to look at Stephanie. “You have an admirable resistance to it already, it will not take long.”

As if something had been switched inside her, Stephanie’s expression turned immediately determined. “Then, we will go. Thank you.”

Zenyatta smiled, his forehead array burning a bright green. “Well then. One last thing…”

***

Genji idly played with the orb in his hand, watching the eye blink and stare at him, then look away.

He was bored.

The novelty of the plaything he’d caught had quickly faded, especially after contacting the others.

Winston had been delighted to know they were now in possess of one of the Cultist’s evil orbs, and though he’d admonished Genji for acting on his own, he was excited and proud to hear he had not handled the orb without his suit gloves or mask.

It would keep his identity safe, and make sure the orb could not do something evil to him if he were to touch it with his bare hands.

Unfortunately, Winston had not known where they could safely take the orb, as he’d been caught unprepared, and had asked Genji to keep on the rooftops and away from people, and if the Cultist arrived before Winston called again, Genji was not to engage and instead run.

Lucio and Hana had at first proposed to meet up with Genji, so there could be three of them in case the monster appeared, but Genji had refused, saying it would be more conspicuous for three sentai to be together bouncing around on the rooftops rather than just one, and he was the silent one.

Hana was… not quite used to stealth, especially not jumping over buildings as she did not have Genji’s training, and while Lucio could match Genji’s speed with his rollers and had quite a good grasp of jumping around, he was not exactly quiet either.

So, he promised to keep quiet and move around, and Winston promised to be quick and prepare a way to store the orb so no one could track it down.

“It appears you have something that belongs to me, Green sentai.”

The soft voice startled Genji enough that he almost dropped the orb below, but at the last second he clenched down his fingers on it and scrambled to stand up.

He had been idly pacing over the edge of an abandoned building, and had been deep in thought so he had failed to hear someone approaching until it was too late.

Genji turned around, tense and on guard, and found the Cultist standing there, a few feet away, with his orbs –or at least, eight of them– circling lazily around him.

“Well, seems like you misplaced it, so now it’s not yours anymore, creep,” he called out, attempting to sound less wary than he felt.

“Hmmm. Is that so? Yet, last I knew, I had decided to let a dog have it, not a sentai.”

Genji scoffed, though as usual, the Cultist’s behaviour unsettled him.

With his amused voice and his casual attitude, he was a far cry from the usual monsters the sentai fought. He truly was on an entirely different level.

“Well then… what about a fair exchange, sentai? You let me have my orb back, and you can have this.”

Genji fought the urge to leap away when the Cultist smoothly slid one hand under his cloak, expecting who knew what sort of weapon, only to see him extract what looked like a pile of envelopes from some inner pocket.

Genji frowned, fighting the urge to crane his neck to look at them. “What’s that? Why would I exchange this for…” something caught his attention and his eyes widened underneath his mask. “Is that… money?”

The Cultist’s shoulders shook slightly, and Genji realised, startled, that he was laughing quietly, and stifled an offended grunt.

“I thought humans enjoyed exchanges that included their currency,” the Cultist said, voice a smooth timber that made Genji shiver. “Is that not the case?”

He had no idea why, but he had the feeling the Cultist was mocking him, yet he could not understand why, or how.

“Not when monsters like you are bundled up with it,” he growled, and in the back of his head, his dragon surged forwards, just enough to be a comforting presence, enough so that the monster could also feel it, and be cowed.

He saw the Cultist stiffen in front of him, and he felt a small flicker of pride at the thought that maybe he’d scared him.

“Where did you get that?”

The Cultist brushed one finger over the envelopes he was holding. Casual, just as calm and unruffled as ever. “A woman happened upon me, afraid, so much afraid.”

Genji felt anger coil inside his belly, and focused on it instead of his fear –being angry was much better, and had better results than cowering. “What did you do to her?!”

The Cultist at first did not answer. He looked at Genii, right through him, with his glowing eyes. Genji stiffened. “She will not be seen around here anymore, that much is certain.”

Dismay and an even stronger anger rose inside Genji like burning fire, enough that he was left breathless, fury almost consuming his thoughts.

Any thought that the Cultist was somehow playing around, that there was maybe something else at play, completely vanished from his mind, replaced by disgust with himself at having allowed a monster to fool him this way.

This creature had killed… he had…

The fury paralyzed him, and when the Cultist flung the envelopes at him, Genji almost did not move, though his hand darted out on instinct to grab the pile of envelopes, nearly tied together by a red string, before they could topple over and flutter down on the city streets.

“Wh–”

“I have no need for this. You can have that. As for my mala…” the Cultist paused, pressing his fingers together in front of his face in a pose evocative of a meditating stance, “I will have it back, eventually. Everything is as it should be.”

He disappeared before Genji could react, quickly, smoothly, leaving behind Genji with his fury coiling inside him, yet nothing he could do about it, seething, furious.

It would take him a long time before he noticed the printed name on each envelope that stated they belonged to the 7/11 a block away from his base, and before he realised exactly who the woman the Cultist had been talking about was.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i warned you about the feels :D


	5. Chapter 04

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The angst is very short-lived (at least for now? :D) also introducing someone in this chapter that maybe you should have expected to appear in this fic hue hue hue  
> ANYWAY enjoy :D

**Chapter 04**

As he walked to the 7/11, Genji’s mood was at an historical low.

He’d spent the night rolling around in his bed, unable to get any decent sleep, and if not for the fact that he’d agreed to meet with Jesse, he would not have left the base at all –let alone his bedroom.

The previous day and the conversation with the Cultist was the only thing he could focus on, and he could not understand why he felt so upset about that monster, only that he _was_.

It also left him with a bitter taste in his mouth, and the nagging feeling that he had no idea how to address the situation. Jesse had known Stephanie longer than he had, and though professional, they had been more friendly with one another than Genji had been with her, so he somehow felt Jesse had the right to know what had happened to her, and yet…

He could not tell him.

Genji had not met with the Cultist – _Green sentai_ had. So Genji was not supposed to know that Stephanie was gone for good, that the Cultist had… that he had…

No, he was not supposed to know, but he _was_ the only one who knew. The sting of this truth was perhaps what bothered him the most.

It hurt.

A part of Genji wondered if it hurt because of all the people Genji heard had been targeted by the Cultist, none of them he had known personally, or had ever seen before. They were numbers, a toll that Genji considered yet could not truly grasp… but he had _known_ Stephanie.

Was this bad, then –that it was only now he felt the cold truth of the Cultist’s nature clashing with whatever feeling Genji had about him? He had no idea.

Genji barely remembered getting back to the base, though he had; he also remembered Winston sending Lucio with a proper protection to put the orb into, and he remembered giving it away as quickly as he could without arousing suspicions, wanting to get rid of it. He had not wanted to look at it anymore, disgusted and angry, the idea of having on him something that belonged to the Cultist making his stomach twist.

Afterwards, he had avoided Angela’s eyes. She would understand something had happened if he did, and he did not want to address it, the anger too strong, the frustration too complete for him to be able to look at it rationally.

He did not want to admit she had been right about the Cultist.

Genji did not know why the truth stung so much… he was just a stupid idealist, after all.

Jesse was waiting for him in front of the 7/11. His shift had just ended, and they had plans to grab something to eat, and he looked… happy. Carefree, smiling.

He had no idea that his co-worker was dead, murdered in cold blood by an irredeemable monster.

“’lo, Genji! You look like someone kicked your dog! Well, if you had one.”

He waggled his eyebrows, expecting Genji to make one of his usual quips. Genji wasn’t really in the mood for that, so instead he just lifted one hand in greeting and slumped against the wall, feeling exhausted and the day had just started.

Maybe he should have tried to train a bit instead, working this helplessness by fighting against some training bot might have helped with his mood…

“Man, sure looks like you’re having a shit day.” Jesse wrapped one arm around Genji’s shoulder, tugging him away from the wall and down the street. “Here, let me offer you a drink buddy. It’s on me! And you know why? Hmm?” though Genji did not even look at him, Jesse continued talking as if nothing was wrong, his grip on Genji’s shoulder steely. “I got paid! Boss said the sentai popped around with our money! Looks like everything’s fixed!”

Genji knew he should at least make an attempt to look happy for his friend –he knew Jesse worked hard and was trying to cheer him up, but…

He just couldn’t.

He’d known Stephanie. She had been such a happy, cheerful person, always chatting up with Genji, poking fun at him being single when she was happy with her girlfriend, putting aside things she knew he loved so he could buy them next time he popped around the 7/11…

And now she was… gone. Dead.

Her being a thief would have been better than her being…

Jesse looked at his face, unsure what was wrong but unwilling to let his friend linger in such a mood.

“Y’know, I shouldn’t tell you this, but…” Jesse tugged him closer and slouched some more to whisper in Genji’ s ear, sounding like he was going to share some secret. Usually, he would bat at Jesse’s face and joke about his beard tickling him, but this time, he simply sighed, and waited for Jesse to continue. “I got a call this morning, right before work.”

“Ah? Did they call you back from Starbucks?”

Jesse grunted. “No, not yet, but if they do I’m dropping my other job right away, I tell you. No, but… listen, you can keep a secret right?”

Genji straightened his back and peered at Jesse’s face, reflecting his serious tone with his own deadpan look. “You could ask no better person, Jesse,” and offered him the smallest smile.

“Good, ‘cause it’s one hell of a secret and you got to keep it, alright? I’m trusting you with this Genji.”

He pushed Jesse’s head on the side, amused at his friends antics and aware he was most likely doing this to cheer him up. “Yeah, yeah, tell me, don’t keep me hanging then!”

“Well then… Stephanie called me.”

It took a few seconds for Genji to process Jesse’s words, and when they did, he stopped dead, and Jesse almost stumbled forwards, catching himself just in time.

“I… wh… what?”

“Listen, I know–” Jesse misinterpreted Genji’s choked voice and hurried to explain. “She stole from the shop and ran away, and called me before I found out we got our money back but…” Jesse scratched the back of his head, sounding almost sheepish. “She said she was sorry. Said she had some trouble with her finances and her girlfriend and they were runnin’ away, but that she felt rotten for doin’ that to us. Said things would sort out. I thought it meant she wanted to pay us back at some point, then I got to work and the money was there, so…” Jesse shrugged. “Y’know, she was wrong, but… things can go shitty for everyone, ‘n I’m not one to hold a grudge. We’ve all been in… bad situations before. Sometimes all you need is a good word from someone, doesn’t matter who.”

Genji might have noticed the tone in his voice, and the faraway look he got in his eyes, but he was far too preoccupied with wrapping his mind around what Jesse had said to notice much else.

“I shouldn’t have told you, she’s gone and isn’t coming back, but I thought maybe you’ve been worried, and angry. She was sort of your friend too.”

Jesse was still smiling, but he must have noticed something in Genji’s expression, because he paused. “Really, Genji, what the hell’s wrong with you? I’m starting to get worried.”

Swallowing hard, Genji looked into Jesse’s face. Searching for something, anything, that would let him know if Jesse was lying. He did not look like it. “When… when did you say she called you?”

“This morning, couple hours before I started work.”

“But that’s–” Genji stopped, biting on his tongue enough to hurt.

He thought back, thoughts scrambled and hard to catch, and tried to remember –what did the Cultist say?

He’d said he’d killed her, he’d said…

Why did he _lie_?

_“She will not be seen around here anymore, that much is certain.”_

He had… he’d not said he’d killed her.

He’d sounded… certain, and Genji had assumed… but no, the Cultist had been playing jokes with him, but… why? He had committed so many crimes before, Genji shouldn’t have expected any less from him, so then… why not kill a lone human who had happened upon him, instead of letting her go to pick up the money she’d dropped?

How was Stephanie alive, and if she’d truly seen that creature, then… how could she sound so normal, and regretful, enough to call Jesse the next day, believing everything would be alright?

The same feeling as before, the one that had been pushed down by his anger, resurfaced like a punch in the guts, and Genji tried to wrap his mind around the Cultist’s mind tricks.

Surely he couldn’t have known the human he’d let go –and why did he do that?– would have called back, nor that the sentai he’d met was Genji, or that he would, in such a roundabout way, find out that she was alive.

He’d made it sound like he had killed her, and had no problem making a sentai believe it, as well.

Genji couldn’t even begin to unravel what that meant, no matter how much he tried to think about it.

All he understood was that the Cultist had twisted a truth in such a way that his fame as a cruel monster only grew. If he’d done it on purpose, just to make the sentai afraid, then it could… almost make sense, except then he would have killed Stephanie anyway.

Monsters had no remorse.

This made no sense.

Inside him, his dragon brushed against his consciousness, as if it wanted to say something –yet, Genji could not understand what.

Then the dragon was gone, and Genji shook his head.

“Thank you Jesse, for telling me. I… I’m glad she called you.”

***

“So it was Genji who found it. Hasn’t said much about it, though –perhaps the orb still had some remnants of the owner’s powers lingering around it, though by the time he got it to me, there was none left.”

Winston looked up from the paper he was holding and to the reinforced glass cover that surrounded the orb Genji had brought back.

It was hovering inside the dome, blinking, but the eye was fixated on an empty spot, unable to see anything with the amount of masking Winston had prepared to store the orb safely, just in case the Cultist tried something despite the distance between him and his weapon.

It had taken Winston a few hours to prepare the cage, putting all his knowledge to work, and it showed.

The dome was almost invulnerable –it would withstand incredible force applied to it, special attacks on par with Hana’s Mecha assault mech, or even the strength of Genji’s dragon. Nothing could pass through the glass, so even the nanomachines would be unable to slip through and get free. It was impenetrable unless he removed the two small sensors at the base that kept the energy running over the entire surface, and even those could only be disabled using specific codes only Winston had –or Athena.

The Cultist would not be able to get the orb back, not without knowing all that, and also the location of their base –and if he knew that, it would not matter that the orb was safe as none of them would be anymore.

Winston was proud, with how little time he’d been given to come up with enough protections to safely meet up with Genji to get the orb.

“Fascinating… and you say it is composed by… nanomachines?” the holographic screen in front of him returned the image of a middle aged, distinct-looking woman in a white lab coat, a pair of heterochromatic eyes over a sharp nose and thin lips pursed in a small frown.

Winston hummed, glancing up before looking back down at the orb. “Ah, yes. Genji said the orb is either covered with them or made entirely by them. Its structure appears to be… not quite stable, but not as volatile as I’d expect. The nanites seem to be rather… hi-tech, actually.”

“Hmmm. Is that so? I would truly like to… run my own experiments on it, as soon as possible.”

Winston did look up then, straightening his back –as much as he could– before tapping a finger on his own glasses. “Ah, yes. Of course. But it might be a while, still. I have only ran a couple preliminary tests, and I do not trust moving this weapon yet, not with the threat of the Cultist following it. Surely you understand, Moira.”

Her expression turned sharply from the slowly floating orb to him, and the look was almost enough to make him flinch, though he resisted the impulse. Then, she sighed, and rubbed the bridge of her nose with her lithe fingers.

“Of course, I understand. Precaution comes first. Yet, this orb… intrigues me, and I wish to unravel what secrets it holds.”

 “Yes, I know you have written a few essays on the topic of… nanites, in the past.” Winston wrinkled his nose, and checked the graphs on the computer screen on the side, the ones that monitored the orb. “Nonetheless, the dangers of, uh, moving the orb right now outweigh everything else. We have no idea if it’s dangerous by itself or if the Cultist will be able to activate it from afar, even with my protections. I will make sure to run all the needed tests before sending it over to you. It might answer our questions without disassembling it, and we might not know how to put it back together –or if it would allow us to. Nanites can be… volatile.”

“You do not need to tell me that, Winston,” Moira’s voice sounded almost scathing before her lips smoothed out of her frown. “If nothing else, I have quite a bit of interest in its owner as well. The creature you call the Cultist.” There was a weird glint in her eyes, and Winston did not envy that monster –if someone like Moira decided to get interested, it would be difficult even for such a creature to come out of it unscathed. “It has been left unsupervised far too long, if you say he has been collecting… a following.” She glanced away from the orb to fix Winston with a glare. “There have been a few cases around the world with creatures attempting to create… alliances, so to speak, but we have dashed their hopes before they could grow to be too dangerous. It surprises me you have allowed this one to fester for so long.”

Winston sighed, feeling the brunt of her dissatisfaction like the feeling of ants crawling over his fur.

“It has been rather busy these past few months, and the Cultist is… quite evasive. We have been monitoring the situation, and as long as it lays low, it is not so easy to pinpoint where he must be hiding.”

“Ridiculous.” Moira made a sharp gesture with her wrist, dismissive. “If he has been gathering an army, they have to be _somewhere_. The city might be big, but not big enough to hide an entire coalition of monsters. He must be truly… powerful… to keep them all in line, enough that not a single one of them has been seen since he whisked them away.”

Startled by her words, Winston glanced away from his graphs to stare at her, then down at the orb, then back at her. “That is correct. My calculations that he has set up a secret place in the outskirts might not be too far off from the, uh, actual answer. We have no way of knowing.”

“What are your sentai even doing, when they aren’t chasing monsters down? Sitting there, twiddling their fingers? What a waste. There are far more creatures appearing nowadays than there were last year. They are coming from somewhere, and your attempts to… send them back… aren’t truly fixing the problem at its roots. We must find better ways to deal with them.”

It took Winston a certain degree of self-control not to answer the obvious provocation. It was a point of contention between them, as it had always been, that she treated the heroes employed under her control as paws, rather than agents, people to trust –friends. Moira squeezed their usefulness until they could no longer be used, but unfortunately for him, her methods were giving more results overall… which was why she was in control of a bigger division.

With a grunt, Moira looked back at the orb. “If your monster has been setting up a cult to his name, and has been hiding those creatures somewhere, maybe… his true powers are not just for fighting. Maybe they deal with a connection between this world… and theirs. We must study his weapons, and then we must find a way to catch him.”

Winston’s hands fumbled with the stack of paper he was holding, almost making it fall, a few sheets slipping from his grip to flutter to the floor.

“I… I had not thought about that at all, but it could explain why there have been no sightings of monsters we’ve encountered that he stole from us. If so…” he glanced down at the orb, narrowing his eyes. “It might be imperative to focus on understanding what kind of powers this orb has, if there is a connection to its owner, and if the negative emotions it causes are somehow linked to something greater.”

“Yes, study it –but if nothing comes from your analysis, then you must give it up to those who can truly grasp what secrets lie hidden within its depths. Winston, we have science and technology on our side. If you cannot unlock the orb’s power as soon as possible, leave it to me. I will come to retrieve it, and work it out myself.”

“It will not be necessary.” Feeling somewhat possessive over the one possible hint they had over the Cultist’s powers, let alone his identity, Winston was not as keen to let it slip from his fumbling fingers –not to the likes of Moira, at least.

She might be a capable, genial scientist, but… he’d never truly liked her. So maybe it was just his personal bias talking, yet… he wished to move at his own pace.

“We’ll have to see. You have a week, Winston. Otherwise, I’ll have to make… a personal trip myself. I feel like you might need all the help you can get.”

The communication cut off, and not a second too late, as Genji made his way inside the lab in a hurry.

“Oh, Genji! Welcome back! I thought you’d gone with, uh, your friend?”

Genji blinked and looked up. He had been focused entirely on the orb, almost not noticing Winston’s presence there, but when he saw him, his shoulders slumped a little.

“Ah, yeah, but I… he had something else to do, so I came back early. Who was calling just now? Gabriel?”

“No, he hasn’t called in a bit, actually, uh,” Winston scratched his cheek, gently putting down the stack of papers back on the table. “I wish. No, it was Moira.”

“… oh.” Genji did not bother to hide the displeased grimace.

“Yeah, well. She’s quite interested with our new freeloader here,” Winston jabbed one finger at the orb, and Genji’s attention zoomed on it again. “I might be unable to offer much company for the rest of the week, if we don’t find out something good about it, she’s going to visit to do it herself.” He paused, hesitated, then added “in fact, I believe she will come regardless, so… uh. When did Angela have her exams again?”

“I’m not telling her!” Genji took a step back, raising both hands in a defensive position. “Listen, call Fareeha. We can work for a weekend without Angela, it’s not a problem.”

“She might want to stay for longer than just a weekend, I fear.” Winston frowned, his expression stormy. “She expressed a particular, uh, interest on the Cultist.”

Genji stiffened. “Do you think she wants to try and… do things her way?”

“Probably. We’ve had no luck with finding the Cultist at all, so far. She could offer aid we sorely need, bring some agents to spread around the city. It’d free some of your time, and uh, allow you all to focus more on the other monsters.”

“It’s not her responsibility to deal with that creature!” Genji caught himself before he could yell, but it did not stop the sharp edge from bleeding into his voice anyway.

“Genji.” Winston’s stern voice made him stutter. “It is not about that. I understand how you feel about this city, how much pride you take in being able to protect the citizens here, but…” he hesitated, pushing his glasses up his nose with two big fingers, “We have to think about the casualties that could happen if the Cultist chose to attack with his army. If Moira decides to hunt him down, then… let her.”

It was obvious from his tone that he disliked the idea, and that he did understand Genji’s feelings, but he had to be responsible, as he should. Genji’s hands curled into tight fists at his side, and again, a flicker of something burned its way through his chest.

Neither Genji nor Winston noticed the small spike in the graphs on the screen, though later, when alone, Winston would puzzle about it, not knowing its cause.

“What if… what if he won’t?”

“That is incredibly irresponsible to choose to believe, Genji. He is a monster, and Angela is right. Believing in the best of people, of omnics –it’s one thing. But such creatures are not… not like the rest of us.”

Genji looked at the orb again, feeling at loss.

“I will have to try and prepare more of these,” Winston, already turning his attention back to his work, jammed his far-too-big fingers on the keyboard of his computers, tapping away. “If we could find a way to remove more of these weapons from the Cultist, we might weaken him enough… oh! I could try to see if I can track him through these–”

He barely noticed Genji leaving the room, far too engrossed in his calculations to pay much attention.

***

“Oi, what wriggled in your suit and got you so upset?”

Genji straightened his back and looked at what was left of the park after he had completed the exorcism of the monster, feeling drained and peeved.

“What?”

Behind him, the Masked Vigilante shuffled closer, twirling his pistol expertly in his hand before sliding it back at his side. “You’ve got a mask on but anyone can see you’ve got things on your mind, Green sentai. Want to talk things out?”

With a sigh, Genji made an aborted motion to rub at his face with his hand, realising he could not do that with a mask on. “Nothing, it’s just…”

“… long day?”

“No. I mean… not any longer than normal.”

It had been an easy mission, all things considered –a simple monster slipping undetected into a park, terrorizing people, so he’d been sent on his own, and the Masked Vigilante had happened to be there as well, so they had joined forces. Nothing too stressful.

“Then I’d suggest you to rent a masseur, the tension in your back’s so visible you could use it to sharpen your blade.”

Genji snorted. “That’s horrible.”

“Why, thank you, I do my best to always offer the worst jokes around. If not me then, who?” he wriggled his eyebrows, and Genji had to chuckle at that. “Now, want to spill?”

Genji kicked a pebble and watched it roll among the debris.

It was true he could not bring up his doubts about the Cultist with his team anymore without making them more worried about him, and Winston, who might have wished to listen to him normally, was far too busy studying the orb to give him much time, so… talking with the Masked Vigilante might actually help, in a way.

He was not one of the sentai, but was still a hero… though Genji was not sure what he looked for, either. He was the first who kept second guessing himself, and having yet another person tell him off for being willing to give a monster a chance would only worsen his mood.

Yet, Genji could not stop thinking about it, now more than ever before.

So, he spilled everything. Or well –as much as he could tell his fellow hero without compromising his own identity as Genji. He told the Masked Vigilante about the Cultist, and how somehow he got the feeling that things were not as they seemed. He explained about his gut feeling, but kept under wraps the situation with Stephanie, not wishing to disclose that part yet, as it was still too raw for him.

In the end, he simply said he had proof that a victim of the Cultist, which he had freely admitted to, was in fact not dead, and he had no idea what that could mean.

“I don’t know what to do about him. I thought I could seek him out somehow, to… talk, maybe? But he is good at hiding, and if we couldn’t find him before, why would that be any different now?” Genji wanted to ruffle his own hair, but with his mask on, he could not do that either, so he settled for crossing his arms on his chest instead. “And… well. Our last encounter, he… I don’t think he wishes to talk with me anymore, or.. I guess in general? He seemed to want to try to convince me to listen to him before, but this time… he tried to goad me on purpose, then left.”

It could be the monster had given up on his schemes –regardless of what he’d wished to obtain with directly targeting Genji, if there was no positive answer then he had decided it was not something worth pursuing any longer, which explained his sudden change in attitude…

“And then–” he lifted both arms in the air to express his frustration, “my team is convinced he’s been trying to lure me in with some mystical powers that only seem to apply to me, apparently. I can understand, but… why me, specifically? A– White sentai is the one who’s more open to listen and… well, not with monsters, though. Okay, but… my point is that it makes no sense. If he wanted to lure us in a trap, being this obvious makes no sense! He’s creating his own army but they never do any sort of damage, nor do they appear at all. When dealing with everything else he’s sneaky and cautious so we never catch him no matter how hard we look yet when he deals with us, when he tries to get us to listen… he’s upfront about it?”

It felt good to air his frustrations, every little thing he’d noticed that the others had brushed off, one by one, but tallying it all together made it feel more real to him –less of a ‘delusion’ and more like just pointing out things that existed.

“I know I can’t expect my teammates… my friends… to support me when I can see their point. These monsters are… well, I fight them. I don’t know why this one’s different, but… I know it is! He acts like… like a person, not just… the way the other monsters are.”

As he spoke, voice raising the longer he thought about it all, the Masked Vigilante remained quiet, simply listening. He never made a sound to let Genji know he was listening, but he never looked away from him, observing him closely, and Genji knew he was actually listening attentively.

It felt good to have someone take his thoughts seriously.

“Part of me feels like it would be a mistake to sneak past my teammates to do things on my own like this. We’re a team, but they believe it’s for the best if I do not do anything, because the Cultist is dangerous and we do not know what kind of powers he might be hiding, yet…”

He trailed off, frustrated, and this time, Masked Vigilante did speak up. “Yet it’s enough to get you bothered, but you don’t know what to do with it?”

“Yeah!”

“Sounds to me like you should roll with it.”

“Yeah, I… wait. What?” Genji looked up at him, surprised at the casual tone.

He could only see part of the Masked Vigilante’s face –considering that, as his name implied, he had a mask on to keep his secret identity safe– but there was an amused edge to his voice that made it sound like he was smirking.

“Aren’t you supposed to… I don’t know, chide me about not doing dangerous stuff?” bewildered about the other hero’s attitude, Genji parted his arms wide in a gesture meant to encompass the entire metaphorical situation. “I plan to seek out the Cultist on my own. A dangerous monster with one hell of a bad fame and a list of casualties under his name that is twice my height, if not higher.”

Instead of going for the obvious joke at the expense of Genji’s height, the Masked Vigilante chose to keep on track. “Yeah, and I’d prefer if you didn’t, because I feel he could slice you up for good… but –look, man. You’re a good guy, and I’ve seen you fight. You’ve got one hell of a good instinct going. If you think something’s up with that creature, I believe you. Though I… don’t like him. Can’t feel anything you’ve said, for me he’s just that –a monster. Yet you see something there that seems worth pursuing, and I can’t say it doesn’t make some degree of sense, and… no matter what that is, I feel you won’t be satisfied until you go through with this. And of all heroes, I think you’re the one who can pull this off and come out of it unscathed, Green sentai.”

Touched by the plain tone in the Masked Vigilante’s voice, it took Genji a few seconds to answer.

“I… wow. Thank you?” a small laughter bubbled up to his lips, muffled by his mask, and he rubbed the back of his head, feeling sheepish but incredibly relieved. “I thought…”

“Yeah, I don’t think I’m cut for this supportive bullshit. I tend to give very bad suggestions here.” The Masked Vigilante shrugged. “That’s why I got to come with you. You know, for support. And to make sure you _do_ come back unscathed, yes?”

The laughter that burst out of his lips surprised both Genji and the Masked Vigilante, who echoed it with his own chuckle.

“You’re crazy,” Genji told him, leaning forwards enough to deliver a well-placed punch on the masked Vigilante’s shoulder.

“Takes one to know one, Green sentai.”

“Yeah, probably.”

“So, what’s the plan?”

Genji blinked, then cleared his throat. “I… uh. I don’t really have one.” Embarrassed when his words got a louder laugh in reply, Genji hunched up his shoulders and turned to pace around the destroyed garden, feeling all of sudden brimming with energy. “I never got to think about it since I didn’t expect to get any support, so I… have no idea. I need to think.”

“Well then, two heads are better than one here, though I can’t really make the call with the one you’ve got. Seems a ‘lil bit too small to be much of use, so you’d better leave the thinking to me.”

“As if!” lips pulled up in a smile, Genji shook his head. “Let’s find some other place to talk. It might… take a while.”

“At your heels, Green sentai. Lead the way.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I enjoy a lot Genji and Mccree's friendship ;m;


	6. Chapter 05

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little early because I've been having losses of internet since last tuesday and I do not trust my connection not to disappear before I can post this so... here u go :D thank you so much all the peeps who keep reviewing n kudoin', because you're all making me work all the harder for this fic, thank you! :D

**Chapter 05**

It was rare for Zenyatta to leave the premises of the city.

Despite how easy it was to move around even as a monster –the nanites helped disguise him if he needed it– there were still fewer spots to use to hide once in the outskirts, so he rarely went there, but… there were times his soul was in turmoil, and all he needed was a place where he could look at the sky and see the stars.

Due to that Zenyatta sometimes left the security of the underground labyrinth he called ‘home’ and moved to the edges of the city, where the houses were scattered apart and there were more trees, more vegetation, and a clearer view of the sky.

He missed the clear view he had when he still lived in Nepal, with nothing to pollute the stars glittering ahead on the clearest nights, so anything that could let him feel even a fraction of that feeling was welcome.

It was not just so he could reconnect to his centre, but also because with far less people in the outskirts, the sheer volume of Discord he sensed constantly from those living in the city lessened, allowing him a moment of respite.

Before the change, he’d been able to sense both Discord and Harmony in a similar way, though duller, perhaps, but now he could hardly ever feel Harmony anymore, while it was so easy to sense Discord, so much he did not even need to reach out for it. The nanomachines that were now part of him had amplified his powers in ways Zenyatta had never thought could be possible, but there were times it was all too much –the pain, the distress, the Discord…

As usual, he only kept some of his mala on himself, the others spread across the city, a continuous watch, though now he operated with only eight, as one was still in the hands of the sentai.

He had no idea where they kept it –they were actually rather competent with that, their technology was so complete Zenyatta could only receive a small set of information from the orb, and it only amounted to a masked signal that translated to a continuous white noise pulse.

At one point, the first day, he’d received a brief flicker, but nothing useful or something he could analyse –not that he wished to. That orb was now lost to him, and while he missed it greatly, he had hopes it would, one day, return to him.

After all, the orbs had been crafted together by his brother, Mondatta, and himself over long, sleepless nights at the monastery. They were part of who Zenyatta was, and though circumstances made it imperative he learned to cope with being separated from them, it still made part of him ache.

Still, he believed in the Iris.

He was already close to the last few houses of the city when he stopped, in the middle of a bigger empty lot that was a construction site, to take a break and send forwards one of his remaining orbs.

The orb floated quietly in the air, its presence masked by the nanites buzzing over its surface, and soon it was gone from his sight, though he kept receiving data from it as it advanced, checking the roads and keeping away from the streetlights, flashing him the sight of the construction site from the side, where a giant banner with the symbol of the construction corporation working for it displayed in plain view.

It took a few more minutes, with Zenyatta sitting on top of a pile of cold bricks, but then the orb signalled that there was no one in sight, so he got up and moved to follow, and then…

A flash of warning, a truck coming down the street.

With a sigh, Zenyatta waited, only to realise as he kept his optical receptors connected with his mala, that the truck was not just passing on the nearby road, but was manoeuvring to enter the construction site instead.

Tilting his head, curious –usually no one did overtime in the city, so this was quite unheard of– Zenyatta moved to the side, hiding himself from sight and feeling the nanites that were part of his body flicker and flutter, helping mask his presence with deflecting tech.

His orb following the truck closely, so he could know where the driver was at all times and prevent himself from being discovered, Zenyatta waited.

The truck stopped somewhere in the lot he’d just vacated, wheels crushing the debris and the rocks with a loud noise, then he heard doors opening, and the sound of feet falling on the ground.

“Let’s move quickly, I want to get out of here as soon as possible.” The voice was metallic, so it had to be an omnic speaking, while the one who answered back right after was human.

“Yeah, yeah, no need to get bossy with me. Just grab the keys and open the back, I’m going to get the boxes out now.”

Zenyatta’s processors received the data from his mala, and though it was dark and the construction site was unlit, he could easily see the two unload three metal crates on the ground, aided by the truck’s headlights.

The omnic was a builder type, with a three-point array on their forehead and bigger pistons at the base of his head, arms built for heavy lifting, but so was the human following him, whose built was similar, if only organic.

Zenyatta allowed his attention to waver –it was not his business what kind of overtime workers had to do to pay their bills– but then it refocused on the logo on one side of the truck, which he’d seen before somewhere.

It was… a spear, maybe, or a three-point trident pointed downwards, silver on a dark background, and there was no identifying name or brand anywhere on the truck. It was not the same as the logo of the construction site.

Since there was nothing else to do until the men left, Zenyatta kept the orb trained on them.

The crates they carried appeared to be heavy but not too big, and they placed them in a corner of the site, mumbling to one another.

“… are you sure it’s safe?” Zenyatta tuned in as their voices carried over to his auricular receptors. “I heard we got told to handle these things with care.”

“I was assured they are still dormant, but will activate tomorrow and disperse. Nothing to worry about, just open the crates and leave.”

“… don’t really trust that shit. What are these even for?”

“We are not paid to wonder things. Just deliver, open and run away. Nothing else. Shut up and start with this one.”

“Aren’t you curious though? Like… I was told nothing.”

“I heard it’s got to do with monsters but it’s not officially paid for, so they have to do it like this.”

“… makes no sense to me.”

“City regulations maybe? Who the fuck knows. I don’t, and I don’t even live here. Let’s just get this done, I have a date later.”

“Ooooh, that pretty lady who was eyeing you the other day?”

“Yes,” the omnic’s voice coloured with pride. “So I don’t want to get there too late, got it?”

“Sure thing my man. Let’s get these open and done with.”

Zenyatta’s forehead array blinked and he brought both hands together in front of him, index and thumb pressed together, and sent his orb closer to the two, feeling a trail of discord curl inside his core.

That did not sound… like normal construction work talk.

The orb hovered behind the two, far enough above their heads that it would not be noticed, so Zenyatta had quite a good view of the two as they moved to open one of the crates.

For a moment, the human man was in front of his sight, preventing him from seeing what was inside, then he shifted away, and Zenyatta could see, snug inside the crate, surrounded with protective gear to keep it from rattling, a single black sphere, no bigger than a basketball, its surface opaque and metallic.

Zenyatta recognized it right away, and his core stuttered in shock.

He was barely aware he’d moved until he found himself stepping away from his hiding spot and out in the open, and then he hastily stopped, fans spinning so quickly he could hear them in the silence of the night, loud and obnoxious, his internal charge fizzling and crackling.

The sphere was –it was…

“Let’s go now, we have opened them. I don’t want to be here when these things activate. I don’t really want to know what they do. Just… let’s go, alright? It’s a long drive home.”

Stumbling backwards, Zenyatta felt the nanites in his body surge up, helping to hide him as he could not return to the safety of his hiding spot before the two passed by it.

The omnic tilted his head towards him, barely, as they walked by, servos hesitating, processors recalibrating in the dark, observing, seeking, but they could find nothing, and he moved on.

The human did not even turn his way, jumping up on the truck and waiting for his partner to do the same.

Zenyatta did not move, shaking, one hand wrapped tightly around the voice box that was hidden underneath the writhing mass of tentacles on his mouth piece to prevent any noise from coming out, the other hand clenched on the nearby wall, fingers denting the metal. The orb relayed the image of the truck backing out from where it had parked, and then for a brief moment it was in Zenyatta’s direct line of vision, the symbol on its side visible to his optical receptors before it turned around and drove out of the area and back into the street.

Zenyatta did not bother with waiting, then –instead he ran, stumbling and shaking, towards the crates.

His only thought was that he had to stop them –if these were similar to the sphere that had attacked him, over a year before, then they contained nanites, and they would seek out other omnics, other humans, to turn into monsters, and…

He did not make it all the way to the crates.

Without warning, his body sang with pain. It rose from inside him, burning its way through his chassis like fire, making his servos jolt and shake, and he dropped down on the ground, a startled sound of pain crackling out from his synth.

Inside his body, the nanomachines reacted to the presence of the ones inside the crates, rising so crawl all over the surface of his frame, restless and aching, and Zenyatta arched up, nails digging into the grovel underneath him, and felt an echo of the pain he’d felt once before, when he’d been first touched by the nanites.

“Nh–”

Without warning, he felt a burst of energy from the crates as one by one, they reacted to Zenyatta’s presence.

In his haste to get to them, he had not considered what the nanites inside him would do when placed in proximity with the non-activated ones within the orbs, and now he could see that he’d just triggered them from their dormant state far earlier than expected.

The black spheres hovered out of the crates, buzzing quietly, as dark as the darkness around him, but Zenyatta could do nothing, overwhelmed with the painful vibrations inside his chassis, barely able to look at the orbs, unable even to extend an art towards them, and then–

–then they shot into the air, a vertical flight that lasted only enough for them to raise above the buildings of the construction area before all three of them flew away in a straight line, towards the city, and disappeared into the distance.

It took Zenyatta a few long minutes for the pain to finally lessen, though he spent them trying to crawl forwards anyway, the part of his brain that wasn’t glitching at the pain busy trying to reconnect with his mala from around the city.

He needed to find the spheres before they could claim someone else.

***

Winston observed with wide eyes as Athena directed her cybernetic arms towards the orb.

He had worked to expand the masked area to include an entire room of the base, making sure the orb could not escape, in order to run more experiments on it and hopefully extract a sample of the tech it was made of, but it was still an incognita, and Winston kept his distance, just in case.

“I will now proceed with the experiment,” Athena’s voice warned him, and Winston nodded. “Attempting to extract a sample of nanomachines…”

The orb spun lazily in the air, an energy field surrounding it, but when the mechanical arms extended towards it, the eye pointing their way moved slightly, pupil constricting to focus on it.

“I wonder what the eyes are made of,” Winston muttered, his eyes flickering from the orb to the screens at his side. “Are the nanomachines functioning as a camera, to record information, or are they connected to something?”

The idea that an organic monster could own nanites was still surprising, and Winston had no idea in what way the Cultist could control them, though he had to admit that he looked somewhat mechanic in the recordings he had saved up from the sentai meeting with him.

It was preposterous to believe that monsters could be anything but organic, and though they had observed some of them to have parts that looked mechanic, at a closer look they had realised it was just an appearance, and none were truly mechanic at all. They still knew so little about monsters even now, three years since they had started to appear on Earth, that any information would be welcome.

Still, if the monsters had some sort of higher intelligence, as shown in the way they could communicate with people in order to scare them, it was no stretch to assume they could create mechanical amplifiers or other tech, though so far they had never seen any… except now.

There was not enough data to understand if this was normal or a rarity among monsters, though.

When the first hand reached the orb, one thin, needle-like finger touching its surface, just an inch away from the eye, the orb twitched and the eye made a small, aborted mission to look towards the hand, but did not react in any way to the touch.

Emboldened by this apparent calm, the needle prodded at the metallic surface, and tiny fingers spread apart to attempt to suck and collect a fragment of the orb away.

Again, no apparent protests from the orb, which remained almost dormant, and allowed them to take a sample.

“That… went fine,” Winston murmured, surprised. “Almost too easy. Maybe the distance between the Cultist and his weapons make them less responsive to his command… I wonder if this would be a way to incapacitate him… and yet… how much distance is needed?”

“Sample secured, Winston. Proceeding to absorb nanomachines to analyse them.”

“Maximum security activated, Athena. We’re not taking any chances to have you infected.”

“Sample acquired successfully. Beginning preliminary scans. It might take a few hours, Winston. You should head to bed.”

Blinking at her words, Winston glanced over at the wall clock, only to realise it was past midnight. “Well, I can always stay up a little longer, in case something goes wrong–”

“Negative. Your reaction times slow down whenever you miss sleep, so it would be preferable if you could follow my directive instead. I will wake you up should something happen.”

Far too used to Athena’s blunt, curt comments whenever they had to discuss his rest times, Winston decided not to protest and just let her win –this time. He had been working on the orb for most of the day with little success, and if he messed up something due to lack of sleep, he would just give Moira more arguments on whether she should also pick up the sentai from him.

Which… no, he would never allow that.

“Just… do wake me up, alright?”

“Of course, Winston. Now please allow me to concentrate on this.”

Athena waited until Winston was gone before following him through the camera circuit of the base, suspicious about his compliance, but was pleased when she saw him actually go to his bedroom, closing the door behind his back.

Satisfied with that, she returned her full attention on the nanomachine, while making sure the orb was placed once again inside its protective dome, so she could lower the amount of power needed to keep the entire room masked from external interference and use the extra boost to keep herself separate from the nanomachine.

Most of her analysis came back negative –the nanomachine appeared dormant once separated from the orb, and since it had been already activated, it would not attack anything else, nor corrupt other things as they had been afraid it would. It was a relief, because it allowed Athena to be a little bit more free in which extra experiments she could do on it. The tests also allowed Athena to list the components of the orb, and much to her surprise, most of them were in fact materials available on their planet.

From what little blood and tissues some scientists had gathered after vicious monster attacks in other cities, it was apparent their bodies and cellular DNA structure was different and had elements that were not present on Earth, which usually comprised between half to 90% of the monster’s gathered samples. The orb, though… there was only a minimal fraction of elements that were extraneous in it, and those were the organic parts that Athena had learned to associate with monsters, and it was mostly focused on what counted as the ‘eye’ of the orb.

The rest, though… was mostly mechanical compounds that could be found, and manufactured, entirely on Earth.

It was… weird.

It meant the monster was using materials he found here, and had not brought the orbs with him from… wherever he came from.

It also meant it had to have been built on Earth, and had ended up in the Cultist’s possession later on, unless the monster, as Moira had suggested, had a way to go back and forth between dimensions.

What surprised her though was the amount of mechanical parts on it, it was… advanced, and even with the few things she could not fully analyse this quickly, it still revealed a complex set of skills that should have been entirely alien to the monsters.

If more of them had the chance to pick up on this…

Absorbed in her research, at first she did not notice the red alert flashing through her sensors, dulled by the protections placed in the room she was in, until finally it nagged enough that her processors read the alert and made her aware of the warning.

She pulled up a screen and connected her mainframe with the outside sensors and was left puzzled by what she felt.

Something flared up –some sort of energy, maybe, but nothing she could read– and then, just as she was scouting the area to understand what had triggered her alarms, the orb floating in the dome dropped on the bottom of its container, suddenly inert.

“Well, then.” With a sigh, Athena prepared to switch to Winston’s bedroom to wake him up, but was stopped by the thought that whatever had caused the orb to fall was probably responsible for the alarm warnings she was still receiving.

Deciding that checking what was happening outside was more important than waking up Winston, at least for the present time, she decided to switch to the view on the outside of the base, the cameras installed there ready for her to monitor its surroundings.

At first, she could see nothing. The streets were well lit despite it being so late at night, and there were plenty of cars and people walking around as usual. She zoomed a bit, searching, waiting…

And then she saw it.

It was hard to notice, black against the already black sky, but it reflected the light of a streetlight on its dull surface, and Athena was not human –her optical receptors were rather advanced, and could see in the dark.

It was a sphere, floating in the sky, but not at all similar to the ones the Cultist used. It was bigger in size, approximately three times in diameter, and completely black, with no eyes on its surface or anything peculiar, at least at this distance. It hovered above the streets, wobbling slightly and moving out of sight.

With a sigh, Athena looked at the available sentai in the base. Lucio was gone for one of his concerts, and Hana was in the middle of one of her all-nighters to play, as she’d been psyched up about it all day. Angela was sleeping, and Athena did not wish to wake her when she was close to one of her exams, so… “Genji? Wake up. There is an emergency.”

He answered instantly, startled up from his slumber. He had been in his bed, but looked just as groggy as if he’d been sleeping on a chair.

“Wha– what? What emergency?”

“There is an unidentified flying object floating outside in the sky. It is slowly going out of range for my cameras, but it had… it is possible it had a weird reaction with the nanomachines we were studying –the ones from the orb you got from the Cultist.”

Genji wiped his face with one hand, looking partially more awake at that. “A… reaction?”

“The orb dropped down, as if it lost all its energy.”

“And you… what do you want from me?”

“I would like a closer look at the sphere, so if you could act as an intermediary that would be perfect. I intend to inspect the object from a safe distance, but close enough that I can investigate. If possible I would like to bring it back to study it here, or at least a sample, to make sure it is not something else that belongs to the Cultist.”

“Oh. Sure. Give me a second, will you?” he hastily rolled out of bed, still in his pyjamas, and a second later he’d morphed into his sentai costume. “There. Let’s go!”

Athena detached herself from the communications of the base, downloading her conscious directly into the communication device in Genji’s mask. A percentage of her processors remained behind to deal with the base’s protection and with the ongoing analysis of the orb and its nanomachines, but the main part was now with Genji, ready to leave. “I’ll guide you to the black sphere, so follow my instructions.”

With a nod, Genji jumped out of the window.

“So what do you think is it? Something… that the Cultist sent to seek out his orb?” Genji asked, glancing around.

He had no night vision, nor was it equipped to his visor, but it did have an augmented processor that made everything look a little sharper, though not as clear as it would have been with night vision.

“ _Up_ ,” Athena answered through his communication device. “ _It is possible, either that or some kind of device that might disable the orb, making it impossible for us to study it. It has managed to bypass the shielding of the base, somehow, which should not be possible, yet it has made no attempt to come closer, and in fact it is– turn right now!_ ” Genji followed her abrupt order, jumping over a ledge and then twisting in mid-air, using a railing to aid himself as he quickly bounced past a balcony and over the rooftops. “ _It is moving away, but its movements are… slowed down now. Almost unsure._ ”

“We’ll catch up quickly with it if that’s the case,” Genji still could not see anything, but was grateful that this far up, the flying object was still far enough from people that even if it proved to be dangerous it would not hurt anyone. “How are your sensors working to find it?”

“ _It is emitting a… radiation, almost, and_ –” Athena paused, then the communication device made a small sound, like a hiccup. “ _I do not think we should ge –t too cl – o se–_ ”

“Athena? Is there a problem? Is that thing shielding you?”

“ _No, I… I feel like the radiation it is producing is affecting my processors, but thankfully my main servers are still at the base. If needed be, I will return there and you can make your way back as well. Do not attempt anything with it if I leave. It might be dangerous for you as well, and Winston might not like it if I endanger his precious sentai._ ”

Genji knew Athena was just attempting to ease the tension with a joke, but he laughed anyway, amused by her words and even more by the fact that they rang true. Winston was not just their commander, but a friend. He cared for them, and Genji and the others cared back for him just as much.

“ _Alright, it’s just up ahead. Slow down, we need to keep a safe distance._ ”

“Understood.”

And now Genji could see it too, black against the dark sky but still visible enough even with his human sight.

It was a black sphere, moving slowly, haltingly, wobbling a little, yet as he got closer, the sphere seemed to regain speed, vibrating slightly and setting its course back to a straight line.

“Whatever caused it to stop working is not affecting it anymore,” Genji murmured. “It might have been the masking devices around the base. Athena, is this close enough?”

“ _I… yes. My sensors are detecting something familiar, not unlike the nanomachines inside the Cultist’s orb, and yet, this feels… different. I really need a sample to understand but–_ ”

“Can you still work if I get closer still? I might be able to make a grab for it.”

“ _Did you hear what I said, Gen– Green Sentai? You are not to get too close, especially not enough to touch it. I will send forth a probe and we will stay back and observe._ ”

“But where’s the fun?” Genji did not move despite his words, and watched as a small fluttery nanobot detached from the side of his mask and buzzed forwards, similar in size and shape to a little hummingbird. “Was that inside my helmet all along?”

“ _It was constructed through the same technology that made your suit, yes._ ”

Genji observed the small probe flutter forwards, curious and excited. If this sphere was tied to the Cultist, this was yet another tiny piece of a puzzle he hoped to unveil, and maybe securing a sample would help them –him– understand more about the elusive monster and his goals.

Unfortunately, the moment the probe was close enough to the sphere, it stopped, and–

The sphere shifted in mid-air, giving him the impression of turning around to look at him, and then instead of continuing on its way, it changed directions…

Pointing right at the probe, him and Athena.

***

 Zenyatta had a plan.

It was not a good plan, but it was a plan nonetheless.

This was the first time in over a year that he had a chance –a hint to follow, a lead to understand his change and its causes.

He had at first believed that since the monsters were all appearing at random, the causes for his own transformation had to have been similar, and not caused by someone. Even if the thought had passed through his processors more than once, he had never, not even for a moment, believed that the cause could be someone in this universe.

All this time, he had sought out other monsters, creatures that maybe could lead him to where the first monster had appeared, and understand who had sent the orbs that changed him.

He knew nothing about whether or not monsters had the knowledge to create nanomachines, nor had the thought ever crossed his processors, but with new data came new possibilities, none of them good.

Now, he had seen a symbol, and that was enough –but he also knew there were people who sent those orbs out, people who belonged to this universe, who were… humans, or omnics, or both. Who had caused his transformation, and that of other countless unlucky ones.

Yet, that would have to wait –the spheres now wandering over the city, triggered by the presence of Zenyatta’s nanomachines, had the precedence. It was his fault, though he had no idea they would react this way, and now he needed to make sure to keep them from others.

Still, if they had reacted to him this way, he could use that to direct them away from others, and he’d left enough of his orbs around the city that he could attempt just that.

Zenyatta was not fast –when he could still float he was used to moving calmly, but he had not been quick even before then, due to extensive damage to his legs caused by some anti-omnic protesters in his earlier years; the nanomachines had changed him yet they had not fixed the damage, so even as a monster he did not move much, but he used the nanomachines’ powers to cloud himself and make it seem like he moved faster than he could.

Sadly that did not really help whenever he needed to be quick.

He kept a steady connection with his orbs and then sent the remaining ones he had on himself to join the rest, all eight scouting the city for a chance to see the black spheres.

He caught up with the first one quickly, two of his mala chasing it in the air, grateful when he noticed it was floating unsteadily above an empty park, closed down at this time of the night. The city was populated enough that there were people out and about at any time, but if he was quick enough…

With a flick of his wrist, Zenyatta sent forwards one of his mala.

The moment it got close enough, there was an instant reaction –his mala seemed to lose consistency for a split second, vibrating and dropping down onto the grass below as Zenyatta lost control of it. He kept his optical receptors on the black orb, and could see it had also accused the closeness, as it started wobbling and moving slower, almost sluggish, though it did not stop.

This would not do. He needed something more radical in order to fully stop the black orb, and yet… he was one mala down. Zenyatta had to consider his next move carefully.

He decided to take a gamble. Instead of approaching the black sphere slowly like before, he directed his remaining mala to descend onto it from above, hoping gravity would help.

As expected, the moment the mala got close enough he lost control of it, though he could still see through it. The mala dropped down, gravity making it fall faster, and hit the orb.

This close, Zenyatta had enough time to register and secure some footage of the sphere’s exterior and its composition, so he could analyse it later, but he kept his sensors and processors trained on the sphere, observing the way its surface shivered and shimmered in a manner identical to the way the nanomachines that were now part of him moved.

He felt a phantom pain through the mala but he shouldered it with a flinch, and much to his relief, the nanomachines clashing with one another seemed to react as he had expected.

The sphere plummeted to the ground, nanomachines buzzing together with the ones of his mala, and into the foliage of a tree, motionless and inactive.

Zenyatta waited, core whirring, but neither his mala nor the sphere moved from there, though he could feel the nanomachines of both mixing together, connecting–

He cut off the contact with the mala at the first hint of pain, fans spinning quickly.

That… would be enough, for now.

There was no way to tell what would happen to the nanomachines, if they would react to the ones already changed by mixing with Zenyatta, or if one type would overpower the other, but he had some time now to focus on the remaining two orbs.

With a soft sigh, he focused his attention on the other mala, relieved to see it answer once again to his orders. It was still sluggish, but active, so he directed it to the tree, far enough that it would not be caught up by what was happening, but close enough so he could keep… an eye on the situation.

His gamble had paid off, but he now had to operate with two missing mala, and with a third one in possession of the sentai, Zenyatta would have to work with only six of them. Hopefully he would be able to stop the other two spheres before they were found by someone else.

Standing up, still feeling the twinges of pain from the barest contact with the raw nanomachines, Zenyatta ran forwards, as quickly as he could, to find the second sphere.

 


	7. Chapter 06

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I missed two mondays due to the holidays, I thought I could get you all a gift for Epifania and post this without waiting for next monday :D
> 
> Happy reading! Thank everybody for the nice reviews n all the kudos, I'm so happy you're following along! Your reviews fuel me ;3

**Chapter 06**

_~One year earlier~_

What hurt, more than anything else, were the stares.

Two weeks since he had turned into this… creature… and Zenyatta had been chased down and away from three different towns, each time more violently than the previous.

He had yet to find a way to contact the Shambali, and he felt the loneliness weight on him every day more.

He had been on the receiving end of hatred before, or so he’d thought –the kind of disgust and dislike that some humans had towards omnics; it was just something he’d needed to endure, no matter what, in order to keep going.

Zenyatta had not cared much. He could not be welcomed by every soul who looked his way, and he knew that some people still considered omnics as something inhuman, unwanted and against life. There were those who thought omnics did not have soul, and in turn did not belong at their side but rather below, to be used as they pleased.

It was just a bump in the road that he wished to rectify, and when he had joined the Shambali, meeting Mondatta, Zenyatta had promised himself he would change as many people’s minds as he could, one by one, until the dislike gave way to understanding and appreciation.

After all, they were all one within the Iris, humans and omnics.

This… this was different.

Otherworldly, branded as evil by default, part of a group that did not seem to have any redeeming feature.

Twisted and changed, Zenyatta did not even look like an omnic anymore. There were parts of him that were obviously mechanic, but he did not think many had taken notice, far too busy running and screaming to stop and listen.

None had wanted to.

Yet, the new emotion Zenyatta could recognise on their face hurt more than their refusal to listen, and the first time Zenyatta had seen it directed at him, part of his core had broken down, fracturing in ways he had not thought possible.

There was hatred, yes, and disgust –but that was not all.

They were afraid, deeply afraid, and something in Zenyatta scared them enough that they ran as far as they could, trying to escape, eyes taking a glint Zenyatta had never before seen directed at him.

There was something lurking there, right under the surface –something akin to hatred, but deeper and more visceral. They looked at him like something that had to be destroyed, and if not for the fear, he was aware some of them would have tried.

Zenyatta nowadays tried to send one of his orbs or two ahead of him at any times, scouting to make sure no one was coming, just so he could find safe spots to rest and recharge before moving on.

And then there was also the fact that monsters now considered him one of them. Kin.

Did he even have a chance to get help, when he was so changed monsters found him friendly while humans and omnics chased him off, treating him like a menace, a threat?

Relaxing on the edge of a beautiful lake, deep enough in a mountain area that he was sure no one would come looking for him, Zenyatta attempted, yet again, to find balance within himself through meditation.

Without the soft glow of the Iris, he felt lost, but this did not mean he could refuse his roots –meditation helped him, kept a tight lid over those emotions threatening to spill, and without his rigorous sessions every day, Zenyatta knew he would have fallen backwards into despair, into that pit of purple darkness that he felt bubbling under the surface of his core.

The screams shattered the calm, servos jolting in surprise and electricity racing through his wires, giving him a sensation not unlike the one humans felt under distress, core humming so loudly he could feel it vibrate through his circuits.

He moved towards the loud noises though he did not rush, knowing better than to throw himself headfirst without first checking what was wrong, and sent ahead two of his mala from different directions.

Leaving the lake behind him, gentle waters sloshing quietly, Zenyatta moved deeper into the woods, the incline making him aware he was moving on higher grounds, and quickly found a path hidden in the bushes.

His orbs sent back to him the news of someone just up ahead –a human, an omnic and…

A monster.

Discord fluttered through Zenyatta’s core, courting him like a cold, familiar touch, but he did not allow it to freeze him.

He moved forwards, using the orbs he’d sent ahead to guide him.

The monster was a big one, surprisingly so considering they were far from civilization. Usually they seemed to be attracted by people, and the ones appearing on the outskirts were smaller, less dangerous ones.

It was covered from head to toe with grass and vines falling from its head and shoulders and swayed in the air, their edges curling on themselves, moving and twitching; there was no face anywhere except for a pair of yellow eyes peeking from the mass of moss and vines on the front, and what looked like a maw full of dark, ebony teeth just under the eyes.

Zenyatta felt the malice coming from the monster even just by looking at it through the eyes of his mala, and for a moment his core stuttered, reminded that others saw the same kind of horror when looking at him as well.

The human and the omnic were in front of the monster, their hands intertwined, trapped within what looked like a cage made of tree roots, their legs wrapped so tightly they could not move an inch.

Clearly the monster had land advantage, but Zenyatta was not about to let the human and the omnic get harmed.

Fumbling with himself, Zenyatta did not hesitate to reach deep within himself, extending control over the pool of discord he felt there and twisting it to the surface. He disliked using it, but it was the only thing he could do at the moment, too far to get there in time.

As the monster advanced on the screaming couple Zenyatta linked his mind with the orbs hovering nearby, binding them to himself through a purple rope of Discord… and _struck_.

The hue of discord enveloped the monster even as the blow from the orbs made him stumble backwards, and thanks to his mala Zenyatta was able to keep an eye on the couple, relieved to see that with every blow he delivered to the monster, the vines surrounding them seemed to relax and uncoil, until the two were almost free, wriggling and kicking at the vines to aid their escape.

“We’re free! We’re free! Aida! We’re free!” the omnic’s voice was panicked but hopeful, static filtering through his words due to their earlier screaming. He reached out with a trembling hand to grab the human’s one again.

“Run! Run now!” was her answer back, and they both scrambled to stand up and distance themselves from the monster.

Zenyatta was almost on site, focused on keeping the monster at bay, and when he noticed vines shooting to grab his orbs he sent more on the way, keeping three on himself and using the other six to hit the monster from all sides, methodical and precise.

One blow to the side of the head, then another, a third hit from below, the orbs zooming like a blur around the monster, avoiding any retaliation, delivering blows with precise aim and retiring before the vines could grab on them.

With every hit, Zenyatta pushed more and more Discord into the monster, making it stagger, his fighting against the mala growing more and more sluggish, lethargic, as the dark, overwhelming power of Discord burned any resistance into the ground.

He’d never had to use this much raw power before, and even after his change, Zenyatta rarely did, not yet knowing how much was too much, but in such a situation he barely considered the alternative, the monster nothing but a threat to stop in order to protect the couple.

Thankfully, they were far enough his Discord did not touch them.

Zenyatta arrived in the small meadow as his orbs delivered one last blow, humming and pointing all their eyes in turn at the monster, pouring so much Discord on it that it staggered and crumbled, vines curling on themselves as a vain attempt to protect itself from their horrid powers.

Too late, and not enough.

The vines dried up under Zenyatta’s optical receptors, turning charred, dead and lifeless, rendering the monster nothing to the eye but an old, dead tree chopped down and left to rot under a sea of plant vines.

Staggering as the sudden backlash of using so much Discord bounced back to him, Zenyatta leaned against a nearby tree, wheezing and trying to keep his body from destabilizing, fans whirring loudly to offset the heat in his chassis and core.

He felt suddenly tired and weary, hit by a wave of dizziness that seemed to slow down his circuits, and turned to look at the couple, grateful to see them both alright.

“Are you–”

A scream broke through his words, silencing him. The woman staggered to move away from him, a small bag held in the hand she was not using to hold the omnic closer to her. “Go away!” she screamed, and threw the bag at Zenyatta’s head.

Taken aback, he did not move and was hit in the face, though the bag was not heavy enough to do any sort of damage to his circuits, but when the purse fell, he realised the couple was already running away, rushing to get away from Zenyatta with just as much desperate hurry as they had before with the monster.

In truth, Zenyatta knew, to their eyes he was just as much of a monster as the one he’d defeated for them.

He slumped down on the ground, hands shaking slightly, and waited for what felt like forever, collecting his orbs so they would float quietly around him. He had no intention to chase the couple, as they seemed alright and not harmed by their previous encounter with the monster, and chasing them now would only make them more afraid, and it would not help him.

But still…

His optical receptors fell on the bag at his feet. The human had used it as a weapon against him, but he hoped there was nothing inside that they truly needed to use… he would not be able to track them down and give it back, though if he could find some sort of detail, he might just find a way to ship it…

Inside the bag, he found only two things –a purse with some currency in it and a small tablet.

For a moment, Zenyatta hesitated, fingers hovering on the tablet, shaking.

This was not his possession to use. Yet, this was the closest he’d been to finally be able to contact the Shambali. If he got signal this far up the mountain, then he could…

With trembling fingers, Zenyatta held the tablet in his hands and opened it. There was no lock, and the background was a photo of a cat, but what mattered the most, what made Zenyatta’s core flutter… was the fact that there was signal.

His hands moved before he could stop them, shaking as they tapped the screen of the tablet, bringing up the number pad and before he could think, he watched the screen send off a call.

For the longest seconds of his life, Zenyatta waited, and listened to the soft sounds of the dial tone, before…

“Who is it?”

It was the first time he’d heard Mondatta’s voice in weeks.

With a small, choked gasp, Zenyatta covered his synth with one hand, fingers shaking as they clenched down on his throat; his other hand slipped on the screen of the tablet, almost dropping it, before he recovered and kept it tightly in his grip even as he slid down on the ground, feeling almost faint with relief.

Oh –he had missed Mondatta so much…

“Br–” his synth crackled and failed him and Zenyatta hummed quietly, tone so low a human ear would not have heard it, in a vain attempt to calm himself down even as he felt his core constrict.

“Who is it? I do not recognise the caller ID, yet it connected with a private line. No one should have this number. Who is it–”

Frame shaking, Zenyatta folded in on himself, the pressure in his chest almost absurd, so close to pain it made him ache. He had needed to hear from Mondatta since his changes happened, but now… what could he tell him?

How could Mondatta help, when he was so far, when Zenyatta looked so monstrous, when no one could stop long enough for him to talk?

Mondatta made a soft, incredulous noise, then fell silent, but Zenyatta was not paying attention.

Zenyatta, frozen in place, could do nothing. A part of him wanted to close the call, make sure Mondatta never found out about what had happened, while the other craved this little contact after weeks alone and rejected with a body he felt was not his own anymore, and both sides clashed with him, unable to come to terms, unable to be soothed.

The despair that Zenyatta had fought so hard to tame rose inside him, hungry and thick, to curl around his frame, so dense he could feel it like a physical entity, wrapping its cold spires around him, choking him.

After the change he’d felt always hot –the heat coming from within him, the changes making his core temperature higher, even though his fans could never lower it, but the Discord swirling around him almost felt good, cold to the touch, alluring in much the same way Harmony had been, but carrying with it the weight of its source.

Zenyatta whimpered and shook, tremors travelling down his servos, and rather than look anywhere and see the faint outline of Discord around him, he closed down his optical receptors, attempting to calm himself down.

“I can sense your turmoil. You can let it pass through you, my dear. Focus on my voice if you can –I am by your side now. Focus on me.”

Mondatta’s voice filtered through the noise of his fans like a soothing balm, shocking him as Zenyatta had, for a moment, forgotten he was calling him, lost in the depths of the discord he felt.

With a soft yet steely voice, Mondatta spoke again, coaxing him to listen, and Zenyatta latched on his voice, as he had done so many times in the past, using it as his anchor as Mondatta gently calmed him down, soothing his discord, humming and counting down slowly, until he was the only thing Zenyatta could hear, even above his own fans spinning loudly.

Through soft commands, Mondatta used his voice to ground him, and lead him through his panic attack.

“Take the time to focus on the way your core vibrates,” Mondatta instructed in the same patient, caring voice he’d always used in the past, and Zenyatta found himself following his words as he had always done. “In tune with my humming now. One, two…”

And just like before, Mondatta coaxed Zenyatta’s processors to cool down, allowed his sensors to work through his thoughts, letting go of the discord until Zenyatta felt it retreat back where it came from like a tide, leaving behind only an impression of cold and tired, aching servos.

“Is that better, my dear?” Mondatta’s voice was soft, worried.

Zenyatta’s synth crackled, fizzed into silence, a broken laugh the only thing that could be heard.

He was so very tired.

“As if it could ever,” he finally murmured, bitter, shaken.

“Oh, Zenyatta. What _happened_ to you?”

Startled, Zenyatta let out a small sound, though he should not have been surprised that Mondatta could tell it had been him, even with an unknown number…

His optical receptors flickered online again, and he focused on the surface of the tablet, expecting an empty caller screen only to see instead Mondatta’s face plate.

Mondatta stared back, his expression as unchanging as Zenyatta’s, and yet his forehead array was flickering in worry, and through the tilt of his head, Zenyatta could tell he was incredibly worried.

It took him a few seconds to realise what this meant, and when he did, Zenyatta felt cold, bitter shock.

Mondatta could _see_ him.

He could–

And he still–

“ _B-brother?!_ ”

On the other end of the video-call, Mondatta extended one hand, fingers delicately pressing on the surface of his holoscreen as he repeated his question, just as softly, just as _worriedly_ , “Zenyatta… what _happened_ to you?”

***

_~Present time~_

He had failed.

Zenyatta felt discord swell within him like a tide as two of his orbs, floating above an otherwise empty street, watched as an omnic was enveloped by the nanomachines in one of the remaining black spheres.

He had been too late –in his attempt to seek out the remaining two spheres, he had failed to locate one before it activated. Distraught, Zenyatta could only watch from afar, witnessing the omnic get swarmed and succumb.

The omnic did not even have a chance to run; the sphere stopped right above him and then dissolved into thin air, creating a cloud of black, buzzing darkness that descended on him, covering every inch of his body. He fell on the ground, screaming, but soon his voice box was suffocated by the swarming nanites, and he could only writhe and claw at the ground, unable to find respite from the pain. Zenyatta felt an echo of that pain in his chassis, the memory of his own transformation still so fresh in his memory banks.

He could only run towards the omnic, murmuring pleas for forgiveness that no one could hear, knowing that nothing would ever be enough to offset this mistake. He was the one who’d freed the black spheres to begin with, and through this act now he had doomed someone into a life like his own.

Part of him, rational, cold, reminded him that if he had not been there, if he had not tried to get the orbs, they would have activated the next morning, and there would have been _three_ more monsters then, instead of one, and yet…

That did nothing to soothe the grief, regardless.

Zenyatta acknowledged his fault and then forced it down, focusing on just getting to the omnic, so the newly created monster would not be alone.

As he ran, still out of sight of the few passers-by walking around this late at night, Zenyatta still had enough presence of mind to record the transformation through the eyes of his mala. If he could analyse it later, maybe it would be useful, maybe he could learn something new about the nanomachines…

If he could see how they worked, what caused the change, then maybe…

And the omnic kept changing.

His body seemed to stretch and grow, swirling tendrils of nanomachines working to unmake the structure of his metal and mix with it, and much to Zenyatta’s horror, he watched the omnic’s arms grow thinner and thinner, and shorten even as he writhed on the ground, until he was unable to claw at his own body, small arms flapping uselessly at his sides, still twitching in pain.

His feet, on the other hand, kept growing, flattening, large and wide, and…

It was some sort of marine creature, Zenyatta realised, his pace faltering just for a second. The face and neck area remained mostly unchanged, though his forehead array turned from three to a single glowing dot, but the slit of his eyes shifted into something bigger, less mechanic and more organic.

As he watched, Zenyatta took notice of something –as the omnic changed, his body shifting into something new and different, there was little of the omnic left in him, and it was… not like Zenyatta’s own transformation. He had noticed it in the newer monsters that had popped up around the city recently, but… they looked less like humans, or omnics, and more like… monsters.

It was as if the monster DNA contained in the nanomachines had a higher ratio, or was stronger, and more overwhelming than before.

There was no more time to consider what it meant, though, because with a scream, the omnic ceased to fight the assault of the nanites and succumbed to the changes, slumping down on the ground, body so twisted in appearance that it looked even less mechanic than Zenyatta.

It also became evident, as the newly created monster wriggled around, that something was wrong.

His tiny arms batted at the ground weakly, what passed for a mouth opening wide in a scream, though no sound could be heard, just a vague vibration in the air which Zenyatta recognised as some sort of echolocation.

Twisting where he was, the monster seemed to advance, slowly, pushing himself with his long, powerful legs, headed towards…

One of Zenyatta’s orbs flicked forwards, following the omnic monster’s direction –it was the bridge. Down below, the dark waters of the city’s river, though the bed was not deep in that area.

All at once Zenyatta realised the problem, and his core constricted in his chest.

The changes had turned the omnic enough that breathing air was not enough –he needed _water_ , either to breathe or simply because his body was drying in the air, metal turned into organic matter enough that it would make a difference.

Zenyatta was almost there, straining his body to its limits, and yet he was still _late_ ; as he turned the last corner, almost stumbling, the omnic slipped over the bridge’s edge, and into the waters below.

Core almost overheating, Zenyatta ran to the bridge, hands clasping the railing, but could only see the water’s surface ripple, then still.

“No…” he murmured to himself, hands clenching around the railing hard enough he heard the metal creak.

Too late.

Again, for the second time… too late.

The omnic was somewhere in the river now, probably seeking deeper waters, alone and panicked.

With a flick of his wrist he sent one mala up the river, and one on the opposite direction, ready to chase the omnic down, but–

A jolt travelled through his body, making him stop.

Somewhere in the city, one of his orbs had come into contact with the last black sphere.

Much to his surprise, though, he could not receive any visual feedback. All his remaining mala were accounted for, and none of them had caught any glimpse of the sphere, except…

Except the one the sentai had.

If the sphere was near the sentai’s base, then Zenyatta would not be able to track it down, but it also meant it could attract their attention and that was… concerning.

Was their tech enough to protect them from the nanites? Would they trap them and study them or…

Worry clouding his processors, Zenyatta had to make a split decision, which was taken off his hands a moment later as one of his other mala recorded the passage of the black sphere above a particularly busy street.

He had to chase that one, just in case.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered to the empty bridge.

He would have to find the newly created monster as soon as the threat of the third sphere was dealt with.

Behind him, the two mala continued to scout the waters, seeking, observing, waiting.

***

“I have a really bad feeling about this, Athena.”

Athena’s probe approached the sphere, and Genji frowned. He felt off when looking at it –it seemed too much intent, almost alive, and if it was made of nanomachines like Athena had said, then it could be dangerous.

“ _Genji, get ready to back away from it,_ ” Athena advised. “ _The probe is closer to it than we are, it will proceed to make contact and–_ ”

The sphere split in half, like sliced by a knife. Genji couldn’t see very well in the dark, even with the tech helping him, but he saw the edges of the sphere buzz like crawling bugs, and then the two halves parted around the probe and–

–closed down over it.

“It… did it just… it ate the probe?!” Genji pointed a finger at the sphere, feeling a small sliver of panic make its way up his back. “Athena?!”

For a split second, he was afraid Athena had left, then she answered, slowly, “ _I can’t receive any information from the probe anymore… it’s like it ceased to exist the moment the nanites touched it… Genji, I think we need to get away from it._ ”

“What? But what if it’s dangerous? We can’t let it roam free! Athena, we need to stop it!”

“ _We also need to alert the others, and I need to wake up…_ ” a falter “– _Winston. We can observe it from further distance, this is too close, too–_ ”

The sphere moved again, faster than before, and shot towards Genji.

“Uh–oh…”

Genji slid off the balcony and twisted to look back up, watching as the sphere seemed to scatter in the air, forming a dark, buzzing cloud before it followed him down.

“Oh shit, oh shit oh _shit_ –” Genji landed on the edge of a window two floors below and used it as leverage to jump forwards and onto the building in front of him, running upwards along its vertical wall and back to the rooftop.

The moon was shining up there, so Genji could use its pale light to spot the nanites and keep them away.

He could not go back on the streets, not when there were people walking around even this late at night, and he had no idea what the nanomachines could do to a person, or an omnic, if they were to catch them.

In fact, he had no idea what the nanomachines could do to him either, so he had a good incentive to keep them away from him.

“Athena, can you tell me where they are? They’re tiny!”

“ _Behind you, they are following you but they’re gaining speed now. Hurry up, Genji, or they’ll get close and I would not want to see what they can do to a body… my probe is… nowhere to be seen._ ”

“I don’t want to end like that probe, that’s for sure.”

“ _Neither do I. Angela would dismantle me_.”

Despite the situation, Genji couldn’t help but chuckle at Athena’s attempt at dry humour, though he could understand the sentiment.

“Then let’s make sure we get home safely,” he grinned under his mask, eyes narrowed in determination. “The roofs don’t seem quite a good place to stick but there’s too many people down there. Any luck finding a best area to play this hide-n-seek game with those things?”

“ _Proceed on your right, and keep your speed steady, or they might decide you’re a far less enticing target if you’re too quick for them,_ ” Athena advised. “ _There’s an abandoned building two blocks South from here, where one of the monsters’ attack left it in ruins. It has not been fixed yet, we might as well stick there while I contact the base…_ ”

“Alright then, let’s go!”

Genji allowed Athena to track the nanites and focused on running, slowing down or speeding up as she told him to.

The nanites were obviously chasing him, some attempting to corner him by moving to the side, but Athena warned him before they could get too close, and Genji managed to keep avoiding them.

He was sure that it was just his speed that kept him safe, and any normal person would have been caught up already, but the incognita on what exactly those things could do to him was still a weight on the back of his mind.

“ _Something is wrong, Genji._ ”

As he vaulted over a pole and used it to slide down a rooftop, moving to lower grounds, Genji stiffened. “What?”

“ _I cannot reach the base. Something is interfering with my broadcast signal. It might be the nanomachines. If we want to contact the others I need to send another mini-probe back to base with my AI in it. Are you going to be alright on your own?_ ”

Genji hesitated, biting down in worry on his lower lip. The idea of facing this weird enemy on his own was not appealing, even more so when he only could rely on Athena’s sensors to pinpoint where all the nanites were, but they did need help.

He had no idea what he was in for.

“We need to get word back to the base, I’ll do my best not to get into any sort of shit until you’re back,” he promised in the end, knowing there was no other choice.

“ _I do not like having to leave you here alone. It was my idea to follow that sphere out here, but we need help to secure it._ ”

“It might not do anything to me, though,” Genji muttered, though his voice lacked certainty. “Maybe it’s just attracted to mechanical things…”

“ _If that was the case, it would have moved to attach itself to one of the hi-tech construction machines we’ve passed on the way here, or one of the flying cars parked near the buildings we crossed on our way to this area. No, it is attracted to… living things, I guess._ ”

“But you are not 100% sure of that?”

“ _It did eat my probe,_ ” Athena murmured. “ _So the exact scope of what it seems to be attracted to is still uncertain._ ”

“Roger that.”

“ _Keep your strength and do not engage,_ ” Athena ordered, even as she detached herself from Genji’s body as another, smaller probe, slightly different in shape. “ _It will follow the bigger target if you stay on sight, but there’s no need for heroics now, understand?_ ”

“I have no intention to learn what that thing can do. Do you think it can eat away walls like it did with your probe though? A game of hide-n-seek doesn’t sound too bad right now…”

“ _Genji._ ” Athena’s voice sounded worried, and that more than anything made Genji’s heart constrict. “ _Please hold on, alright?_ ”

And then she was off, speeding low near the ground, and zoomed behind a pile of rubble –and not a second too late. The nanomachines swarmed into sight, buzzing and expanding at the edge of the cone of light of a streetlight.

Genji swallowed down his apprehension, and tensed up. He needed to hold on, just until reinforces arrived.

Inside him, his dragon shifted closer to his consciousness, a bare brush against the back of his mind, and with a startled yelp, Genji realised what it wanted.

Not wasting time, he raised one arm in front of him. “Sentai power attack, Dragon Spirit unleashed!”

With a green flash surrounding him, Genji called forth his spirit dragon, though instead of unsheathing his blade as usual, the dragon wrapped its form around Genji’s helmet. Its shape shifted and changed, taking on the outwards appearance of a dragon head with its fangs bared open.

Genji watched his visor change, his sight sharpening in the dark until he could see with clarity the floating nanites approaching him.

“This is perfect! Thank you!”

With his new sight, Genji could see the nanomachines better, and resisted the urge to cringe.

“No way I’m letting these things get close to me,” he muttered to himself, and in the back of his head he felt his dragon agree with a displeased huff. “Let’s make sure we keep moving, then!”

He darted to the side, and glanced back only to see the swarm of nanomachines follow him, more aggressive than before now that their prey was this close. Their number appeared to increase too, which surprised Genji –were they multiplying?– and their swelling and growing in size only made him warier about them.

They struck, darting towards him in a straight line, and Genji twirled to the side, spinning and rolling in mid-air before falling on all four, jumping upwards and avoiding another strike.

He had a good amount of stamina left, but if his friends did not get there soon enough, he was not sure he could keep up with the way the nanites were attacking him.

He got his hand ready and a flurry of shuriken appeared in his fingers with a green flash. “Let’s try this! Shuriken Attack, go!”

He sent the shuriken flying towards the dark cloud, watching as they parted to let them fly through, harmless… then he smirked and flicked his wrist, and the shuriken exploded with a sudden, flashy bang.

“That _should_ do something, at le–” his satisfied gloating stopped as he watched the nanomachines swarm around the green light, absorbing it until it was gone. “Oh shit.”

Something Winston had said flickered through his mind again, making him wince. He’d been muttering about the nanomachines of the Cultist’s orb, and how those were already complete, and would not react to contact with other substances, whereas basic, unchanged nanites would try to attach themselves to determinate things in order to manipulate them. It was not Winston’s field of work, but he’d worked with Moira for years and she was one of the titular experts on nanites.

If he remembered correctly, and what Athena had said earlier counted –that the nanites had absorbed the probe but seemed fully focused on Genji and not on anything else– then… the nanites in the sphere were unchanged, non-activated ones.

How they’d react if they managed to reach Genji… he really, _really_ did not want to know.

The way they seemed to buzz contentedly after absorbing the brunt of Genji’s power did not bode well for him, either.

Growing bolder, the nanites darted towards him once again, and Genji got ready to jump out of the way, only for something to fall from the air right in front of him, dropping on the ground like a dead weight.

Shocked, Genji faltered and took a step back, only to watch as the nanites backed away from the object as if struck, wobbling  as they distanced themselves from Genji.

“What…” Genji frowned and looked down at his feet, eyes widening in shock. “One of the Cultist’s–”

“Step back, Green sentai.”

Genji’s head snapped to the side. Standing on top of a nearby, broken down wall, was the Cultist, one hand clutching his chest and three orbs floating slowly around him, their eyes blinking sluggishly.

“… you!”

 


	8. Chapter 07

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)
> 
> i would like to thank each one of you for reading, reviewing and kudoing this fic. esp the reviews because you sweet ppl make me want to work hard to make this fic better and better with each new chapter. thank you!

**Chapter 07**

The first thing Zenyatta saw as he reached the swarming cloud of nanomachines was Green sentai, standing in front of them.

For a second, Zenyatta’s attention was captured by his different helmet, now resembling the head of a dragon. The spirit was closer to their plane of existence and it was coiled tightly around the sentai’s shoulders. Zenyatta could not see it with his optical receptors, but it was almost as if he could, its warmth spreading to Zenyatta’s senses.

Soothed by the dragon’s mere presence, the ache caused by the nanomachines to his body dulled slightly, and though it was not enough to dispel it fully, it was enough that Zenyatta’s servos relaxed a fraction, his processors a little less taxed.

The closer he got to the buzzing cloud of nanomachines the more they resonated with the ones inside him, and it was… a torturous pain. His core was almost overclocking, stuttering like an old mechanism, and Zenyatta spared a thought about it, worried that he would not manage to withstand moving closer than this.

Yet it did not matter.

Green sentai had been targeted by the nanomachines, and the idea was _unacceptable_.

It was not simply because of his standing as a hero –being scorned by the city he protected would be the worst kind of irony– or because Zenyatta had no idea what would become of his dragon if its wielder became corrupted, but…

Zenyatta had already failed that omnic, too late to save him, and the idea of Green sentai ending up the same way, just like that omnic, just like Zenyatta himself… no. he could not allow it to happen.

The idea made his core ache more than the nanomachines did.

He would do anything to make sure Green sentai was spared.

“Step back, Green sentai.”

Green sentai’s head swirled around to look at him but Zenyatta’s attention had already moved to the swarming nanomachines; pushing his mala towards them was keeping them back, but it would not last. They looked… not quite activated, but they were already reacting to Green sentai’s presence, emitting a low electromagnetic charge that Zenyatta’s sensors could easily pick up.

Running away now… it would accomplish nothing. They would follow Green sentai anywhere.

Under Zenyatta’s optical receptors, the buzzing cloud of nanites seemed to recover, their confused buzzing receding as they moved away from his orb only to split in two different swarms.

Zenyatta extended one arm to call back his mala, ignoring the pain flaring through his circuits, and it sluggishly rolled towards him…

Green sentai’s foot slammed down on top of his orb, pinning it to the ground and startling Zenyatta.

“What are _you_ doing here? This is _so_ not the time for a late-night visit,” Green sentai grunted, voice low and urgent. “These shitty things keep following me around, I have no time to pay attention to you, as well.”

Zenyatta lowered his arm. “I am aware,” he answered, just as urgently. “You have no idea what you are up against, sentai.”

Green sentai stiffened, glancing back and forth between Zenyatta and the swarming, buzzing clouds of nanites, body tense.

“… these belong to _you_.” The accusation came in a low voice, but the animosity was almost hesitant, though it made Zenyatta flinch all the same.

It was… well, for someone who did not have all the facts, it could have been an almost too obvious connection.

Zenyatta’s mala had been in the sentai’s possession long enough that they surely knew about the nanomachines in it, and considering how rare they were in fields that were not medical or scientific, regulated and studied with a degree of wariness due to their volatile properties, finding unknown dormant nanites swarming through the city and then targeting a sentai right away… it was, indeed, an easy mistake to make.

Unfortunately it was not the truth, but convincing the sentai would take more than just his word.

 “No,” he answered plainly, though he did not held much hope that the sentai would believe him. “I am not the one who sent them here.” Zenyatta hesitated, aware that he was at fault for their early awakening, then chose not to comment on that, as it would only worsen the situation. “But I do know what they can do. You should keep your distance.”

“… why should I believe you?” the sentai shot back, obviously just as tense as before, and yet the pressure of his foot on Zenyatta’s orb lessened a little. “You are known for your… _lies_.”

Zenyatta’s forehead array blinked once, confused by the particular tone of that accusation, as in fact, he had never lied to the sentai, not even once, but there was not much he could say, or do, to convince the sentai that he was not responsible for the nanomachines.

The rangers had made it clear they would not listen and Zenyatta had already decided to give up on trying to get through them, so if Green sentai did not believe him then Zenyatta had to find an alternative to that. He would not allow Green sentai to be in danger, even if he had to fight both him and the nanites at the same time to accomplish it.

Besides, the sentai still had his mala. No matter what Zenyatta did they would work on it, especially if they believed it would stop him from whatever dangerous schemes they thought he had in mind. It gave him hope that they would find something – _anything_ – that could help. If everything else failed, there was still that. He _needed_ the sentai to work on his mala.

“I do not think this is quite the right time to discuss my propensity towards honesty, sent–”

The nanomachines chose that moment to move.

They formed two perfect, parallel arcs in the air, shooting at the sentai from two different direction, and Zenyatta felt a chill run down the servos of his back, as the sentai had been focused on him, not on the threat.

“Sentai!”

The Green sentai reacted quickly, jumping high into the air and away from the incoming swarm, using the nearby wall to give himself enough momentum to reach a higher spot while Zenyatta hurriedly recalled his mala back to him and away from the incoming swarm, though the nanites made a show of avoiding it.

He only had four now, so he had to be cautious.

The swarms swirled away from Zenyatta and his orb and pointed directly at Green sentai who jumped higher in the air, twirling with expert familiarity, avoiding both clouds; he materialized three shuriken into his fingers, throwing them back with a flick of his wrist, barely stopping to glance as some of the nanomachines surged forwards, surrounding the shuriken, which disappeared into thin air. “Shit,” the sentai cursed quietly.

Zenyatta swung one arm forwards, sending one of his mala shooting upwards, higher and higher above the sentai’s head, following his movements and getting closer before hovering above one of the two swarms of nanites, and then let it drop. Unfortunately, the partially activated nanites sensed what he was doing, because they parted and easily avoided the orb, just far enough to not be affected by its closeness.

With a curse, Zenyatta flicked his wrist so his orb would follow them, but without the momentum gained by the drop, the moment it got close to one of the swarms, only the closest nanomachines wobbled, slowing down and sluggish, while his orb did the same.

It was not enough –the nanomachines were still active, and there were too many for his plan to work with them. It had worked before when they had been contained within that black sphere, but now…

“They are avoiding you,” the sentai called out. There was still wariness in his tone, though no animosity nor aggression. He was merely… curious. “Yet they chase _me_. Tell me, _monster_ , how could I believe you were not the one who sent them after me? Or that you seek to gain control of them, and that is why they evade you?”

Something was… not quite wrong with the way the sentai acted, almost smug, but Zenyatta’s attention was fully on the danger of the nanomachines, and had no processes left to consider anything else.

The sentai’s safety took priority, now.

“I have nothing to gain by interfacing with them,” he replied, honesty making his tone cutting. “And they have already attuned to you.”

Instead of lashing out at him, though, the sentai paused, though his focus was mainly on avoiding the nanites, keeping away from them; after their attacks, they had calmed down, buzzing quietly, as if regrouping, and the sentai used this chance to breathe and rest, though he did not relax.

After a moment, he stretched his arm in front of him, fingers splayed wide. “Sentai power attack, Dragon Blade unleashed!”

Zenyatta’s senses sang as the blade appeared in Green sentai’s grasp and the dragon extended part of its essence from the visor and into the blade. Zenyatta had never felt its presence so strongly before, except during that one fight, and its soul was burning so brightly it soothed Zenyatta’s pain a little more, the ache receding from his circuits as he watched the blade turn solid in the sentai’s hand.

It was possible the dragon had sensed the urgency and the danger of the nanites without knowing what they were, but Zenyatta also felt worry lace through his senses.

“Do not approach them!” he could not hide the sharpness from his tone, worry making him hasty. “Never allow the nanites to get close enough to touch you!”

“Listen, your cryptic wording is not doing you any favour, _monster_.” The sentai turned sharply towards him. “I have no intention to get close, I saw what they do. The question here is… why are they avoiding _you_?”

“That is because I have been contaminated already. These nanites avoid those of similar ilk, though I do not know why.” No time for wordplay, just honesty, though Zenyatta figured it would not matter. “If they reach you, they will–”

A sharp pain cut through Zenyatta’s words as a small group of nanites inched closer to him, separating themselves from one of the two halves. It was not enough to do more than remind him of their link, but it made him stutter, disrupting his speech.

He stumbled backwards, instinct overriding everything else, and curled both of his hands around his core, feeling it grind and click within its metallic casing.

The sentai observed this, perched on the edge of a broken wall a few feet away from him, then he lifted his blade, pointing it towards Zenyatta. “I could finish you now,” he murmured, voice so low Zenyatta found it hard to hear him above the sounds of his own fans. “I have never seen such show of weakness before. The nanomachines might not be your fault, but… they are affecting you. I could…” his grip on his blade tightened “… slay you, right now. End the reign of the Cultist before it truly starts. I could deflect the nanites with your corpse. Obliterate them with the rage of my dragon.”

Zenyatta’s fingers scratched at the covering of his core, the tentacles covering his mouth piece extending and curling upon themselves with little startled, mechanical movements as he tried to recover from the pain, too far from the dragon to be able to take respite through its presence, too close to some of the nanites to be able to recollect himself.

He had no intention to die.

There was so much more he wished to do, to see –no one could recognise the symbol on the truck that had delivered the black orbs to the city, just him. No one knew the full story, not even his brother. No one could help the others who’d been transformed, if he died…

But it wasn’t simply that.

Zenyatta was not at peace, not anymore. So far from the Iris, so far from the balance, the calm that had been part of him for so long, Zenyatta did not wish to die.

He wanted to _live_.

“Do… not.” It was not a plea, but it was as close as he could manage through the pain.

With only four of his mala with him, the pain making his circuits sluggish, he had no delusions that if the sentai turned against him, he would not come out of it unscathed.

Slowly, the sentai shifted to look at him. His stance was straight and tense, the aura of danger coming from his frame different yet just as powerful as that of the nanites, and he tilted the blade of his sword so that the edge was pointed directly at Zenyatta’s throat, then he lifted it up, almost as if to strike–

The sword disintegrated into the air, green light shattering in a thousand fragments that were  reabsorbed quickly by the sentai’s suit, the eyes painted on his helmet glowing brightly, shocking both Zenyatta and the sentai.

“Wha–” the sentai stared down at his hand in amazement. “My dragon…”

The nanomachines attacked again.

They split again, two bigger parts shooting straight forwards towards the sentai and a smaller swarm towards Zenyatta instead, making him stumble backwards in shock, senses assaulted by pain as his sensors buzzed and crackled with static.

The sentai shot a look at him, frozen for a single second, before he had to move, the danger of the incoming nanomachines far more pressing than an enemy stumbling and faltering.

They rose from the ground like a dark, ominous vortex, the two halves meeting halfway and joining once again in a single massive dark cloud, spinning as they reached upwards for the sentai, who found himself in the middle of their attack.

Zenyatta let out a strangled gasp, but he should not have worried –the sentai was by no means trapped; he jumped high into the air, so high Zenyatta watched up at him in amazement, his form beautiful to see from far below, and spun in midair, calling forth his blade again and slashing through the air, aiming at the vortex underneath him.

Green light exploded from the sharp edge, slashing down and cutting through the nanomachines with an explosive sound.

They parted, scattered, but Genji’s victorious cry came too soon; the nanomachines regrouped together quickly, looking like they had not been touched by his attack, and rose after him in a column darker than the night around them.

Grunting and trying to move away from the nanites so close to him, their presence messing with his processors, Zenyatta flicked his wrist towards the sentai, shooting one of his orbs his way –only for some of the nanites targeting him to swipe close to it in an arc, making the mala falter and drop back down.

“Stay… away–” Zenyatta struggled to keep standing, thought processes a glitching mess, and called forth the Discord from within him, shrouding himself with a layer of it, so thick it was visible to the naked eye, intensified through the orbs still present at his side.

The Discord offered a small layer of protection against the buzzing nanomachines, but it was a double-edged blade, as Zenyatta felt it coat his metal frame like oil, making him shiver and wince at the cold, the intensity of the negative emotions it caused him a sharp contrast against the muddled pain from the nanomachines.

Yet, it helped him focus, and he _knew_ Discord –he owned it, he controlled it, he could spin it through his fingers, make it behave… unlike the power the nanites had on him.

He sent a wave of Discord at the nanites, and they scattered for a moment.

Balanced between the numbing cold and the pain from the nanomachines, Zenyatta returned his attention to Green sentai.

He was still jumping around followed by the swarm of nanites, but he seemed winded, having to be quick to avoid them and keep his distance, and Zenyatta knew that as he was a human, his endurance had its limits. He stumbled towards him, aware that in his state and with little weapons on him he could not do much, but he had to stop when the nanites’ presence became too strong for his senses, even cushioned by the Discord waves.

Unfortunately, Zenyatta had no idea how to remove the threat of the nanomachines. There were too many, and he did not know if the sentai would even wish to cooperate with him against them, but…

He had to try.

“Green sentai!”

The urgency in his tone was not lost on the sentai, but he did not spare him even a glance, too busy sending another blade slash towards the nanomachines, which did nothing except make them slow down for a mere fraction of a second.

It would not work, and it only kept depleting the sentai’s energy reserves.

“This is ineffective!” he said, and this time Green sentai flinched, passing above him and headed to the other end of the empty lot.

The nanomachines veered abruptly away from Zenyatta, parting to pass past him, and Zenyatta heard the sentai curse again.

“We need to join forces against them,” he tried, once again, and Green sentai snorted.

“So is that your wish now?”

“Do not be callous,” Zenyatta chided him, almost by instinct, the sentai’s attitude a sudden reminder of the many unruly students Zenyatta had left behind at the monastery. “There is no need for useless banter, if the result is defeat by an enemy of both. When two parts have the same opponent, it is not unwise to join forces in order to bring them down, and this is one such occasion, sentai.”

His words made Green sentai stumble a little, and his head snapped towards him. “You…” his tone held something weird again, confused but not quite, before the sentai found himself chuckling, the sound so surprising it seemed to take aback not just Zenyatta but himself, as well. “That… that’s ridiculous coming from a…” sentai trailed off, shaking his head. “Well, do you have a plan, or do you simply wish to offer your services as a living shield?”

It was as close to acceptance as Zenyatta could hope to get, and he felt something bubble within his chest, for once a positive feeling compared to the mix of cold and pain that had become such a constant with him that he felt almost numb.

Green sentai was willing to cooperate, and… maybe…

Zenyatta focused once again on the incoming wave of nanomachines, circuits flickering as he culled as many background processes as he could, dulling as much of his outer sensors so that he would not feel the pain, even if that made him even more sluggish, part of his body close to shutting down.

He needed to focus all of himself to defeat this opponent –the rest would come later.

“I only have four mala on me, and they react to the nanomachines in much the same way as I do,” he called out, his voice almost hollow. “But they can be used as amplifiers. If we manage to gather all the nanomachines back into a single place, I will allow your dragon to use my mala to extend its powers and surround them. We might have just enough of it to burn them and render them useless.”

The sentai hesitated, his head snapping back and forth between Zenyatta and his blade, then he nodded, sharply.

“We can try. I do not think I have enough energy reserves left to continue avoiding their attacks indefinitely.”

Zenyatta hesitated, then, quietly, “neither do I.”

***

Genji was worried.

The situation was less than ideal –having to face against a threat like a monster was by no means easy, but no matter how difficult it got, Genji still had the belief that he would be alright, even if he was alone against one or more opponents, but this…

He could feel wariness thrum inside his veins like liquid fire, something that bordered on fear, and he felt the fierce power of his dragon vibrate against his skin, its presence comforting yet only reinforcing the idea that the enemy was not one to underestimate.

The Cultist presence, admittedly, had done nothing to dispel this belief.

For all he’d thought about him, about how to approach the monster and confront him in a safe setting, for how many plans he and the Masked Vigilante had thought up and then discarded, not seeing them viable, Genji still had not believed he would be put in a situation where he could interact with him on his own, and now there they were, alone and facing the threat of a swarm of nanomachines, and Genji…

It was unfair.

He’d wanted to find a way to speak with the Cultist, but now that the chance was there, the threat was dire enough that he could not focus on anything else.

The Cultist was clearly wary of the nanites, and if his reaction to them was to be trusted, they also severely weakened him, enough that he had been the one to offer Genji –Green sentai– a partnership to defeat their common enemy.

And that was in fact part of the problem, because Genji was perhaps quick to jump to conclusions, but he was also not an idiot.

The Cultist had arrived on the scene late enough that he could have left at any time. He had actively engaged the nanites despite their effect on him, he had called out for Genji when he’d thought he would be caught unaware by the nanites, and then had offered his input on how to defeat them…

When he could have just left Genji to them.

This went deeper than just some machination on his part. There was no real reason why the Cultist couldn’t have left Genji to his fate or precipitated the situation further by hindering his running around, instead of offering a truce.

The nanomachines clearly were meant to do damage, and one less sentai would only make the Cultist’s work easier, more so when none of the other sentai would know he’d been present on the scene to begin with…

Genji’s ruse –his raising his own sword at the Cultist– had been just jest, in part to try and goad the Cultist, in part dictated by the residual sense of distaste that all monsters caused within him, but ultimately he had not truly wanted to attack him, not when more pressing matters required his attention, but…

But Genji had not expected is dragon to act on its own.

He had not expected it to cut their connection enough to make his weapon disappear.

Now, standing in front of the incoming wall of nanites, which seemed to grow and expand the more they inched closer, Genji had no time to wonder about his dragon’s motivations.

“Let’s be clear,” he called out to the Cultist, inching closer and fighting the urge to back away, “after this, I have questions.”

Instead of derision –instead of calm acceptance, or… literally anything Genji had expected from him– the Cultist’s head snapped towards him, tentacles slack on his face, and the orbs surrounding him dropped a few inches in the air, as if surprised by Genji’s words.

“If you seek to know, the path of knowledge is always open and willing to be walked upon,” the Cultist murmured, the timber of his voice an octave lower, vibrating with some sort of emotion Genji could not understand.

There it was again, though –his convoluted, cryptic wording, as if there was a lesson to be taught and Genji was an unwilling student, as if that monster knew more than he did, and needed to impart some forbidden, life-changing knowledge on him.

Genji scoffed. “Let it not be a path towards evil, Cultist, for I will not tire to remind you how I am not interested in the least.”

The Cultist chuckled, lifted both hands, and the orbs surrounding him spun faster around him before rising in the air, dripping and oozing that purple, distasteful power of his. Genji saw him coating himself with it, oily and slick and almost incorporeal, and flinched at the sight, unwilling to let himself focus on that.

He had to consciously remind himself of his own determination, of his need to understand the Cultist, on what he and the Masked Vigilante had talked about, because… in the presence of the Cultist, he still felt his intentions recede, grow less pressing, as if part of him wished to backtrack and only concentrate on fighting the monster.

“Focus on the nanites now, sentai,” the Cultist’s words sliced through his mind, making him jump. “There will be time for idle chat later –as much time as you wish. But if they are not stopped now, ‘later’ will have no meaning.”

 Genji scoffed again, displeased with being led around by one who belonged to the other side of the fence, but aware that in this case he was right, no matter how distasteful the idea was.

He straightened his stance, widening his legs and pointing his blade forwards. “Let’s get those fuckers all bundled up together then! I’ll collect them and lead them around, so prepare the stage!”

He darted to the side, away from the Cultist, and the nanites surged up to follow him.

The Cultist stepped forwards, choosing to move the other way, his orbs hovering close. Genji had no time to keep focusing on him after that, though, dashing around through the empty lot, bouncing and having the nanites follow him, the group growing faster and faster as they did so.

Genji knew –a part of him did– that he was trusting the Cultist to work with him, but his dragon remained silent within his mind, just a quiet rumbling sound to remind him that it was there, and Genji knew this way he was not trusting the Cultist, not really –he was trusting his dragon to know what they were doing.

An orb zoomed right in front of Genji’s eyes, startling him, but it hovered in front of him, slightly wobbly, and Genji realised what it wanted –keeping it close would make the nanites hesitate, and it would aid Genji in knowing where to go.

He followed the lead of the orb, one eye returning to it whenever it dashed to the side, this way or that, and every now and then Genji spun into the air and slashed his blade at the nanites following him, forcing them to change direction, forcing them through a path of his own choosing.

There was so much rubble and destroyed property around that Genji found it easy to find spots to use to hide or to further his speed and keep ahead, though he could feel himself starting to get tired nonetheless.

“I hope your master knows what he’s doing,” he muttered to the orb, though not spitefully.

The orb with him was not dripping that purple mist, at least, which Genji hoped was a good thing, or he would be affected by it and it would be difficult to focus on the nanites. One of the eyes moved to look at him, pupil constricting, and Genji wondered if the link between this thing and the Cultist meant he could understand and hear him.

He did not have time to focus on that either, though –the nanites were still following him, and though most of them were buzzing in a single group, there were still smaller clouds that kept separating from the main swarm to try and attack him from the side, and Genji knew better than to rush their attempts to keep them in one group.

If they didn’t hit all the nanites at once, the leftover ones would start to replicate again, though slowly. They would never win otherwise.

Genji glanced back into the darkness, his helmet sharpening his sight enough that he could see the swarm coming at him from the left, and noticed the size had decreased again.

“Shit–”

The orb halted abruptly, but Genji continued moving forwards, pushing himself upwards, hands grasping the wall to aid his movements, and he watched with the corner of his eye as below him, the orb spun sideways and wobbled and fell inches from the ground as a second smaller bunch of nanites halted and rolled back into the main swarm.

“Good job,” he hissed, though he didn’t really mean for the orb to hear him either way. No way he would praise something belonging to the enemy.

He rose to the highest point he could reach among the broken ruins and then jumped high. He felt his dragon powers vibrate across his skin like an invisible, glistening current, and something almost physical appeared underneath his feet, helping him rise higher and higher.

He could not stay that high for long, but it allowed him a good view of the area underneath him.

Eyes darting around, Genji searched for the familiar, glowing purple orbs of the Cultist, and located two of them hovering in the corners of a wide, barren area with what seemed to be the remains of a low metallic fence surrounding it. It was probably what was left of a parking lot, but it was too dark for him to really see if there were white stripes painted on the broken concrete.

The lot did not have anything to stop his dragon’s powers once unleashed and possibly enhanced through the Cultist’s orbs, but it also meant there would be nothing to use as shield against the nanites. Dangerous, but their best bet.

They would have to be quick.

A third orb shimmered into sight, slightly wobbly, and Genji’s eyes focused on it, noticing there were nanites near it. Feeling a hint of worry, Genji looked down, seeking the Cultist, and found him unsteadily making his way towards his orb, the purple hue of the wisps of smoke coating his body so thick and deep Genji’s eyes blurred for a moment as he faced a smaller, concentrated number of nanites in front of him.

The Cultist stood still, not about to back down, but the nanites in front of him did not back down, as if struck in an endless checkmate where neither party wished to move or concede, and even from above, it was obvious the closeness was affecting both, as the Cultist was a bit hunched on himself, and the nanites looked almost disorganized as they buzzed, regrouping together and then moving apart with mechanic, confused motions.

Yet, if those were the only nanites that were left, and the rest was chasing him, and the Cultist was ready, then…

Sharply, the Cultist looked up, green eyes finding Genji instantly. The fourth orb was gone from his side, back down below, and all that was needed now was… Genji’s presence.

Still, how to get the nanites where they wanted them? Genji would have to lead them right in the middle, and once they were surrounded by the orbs… he would use his power. How?

Genji furrowed his brow.

Well. He was high enough in the air that he could just…

Instead of continuing with the path he’d picked, Genji gave a mental nod to his dragon and felt its powers disappear from underneath his feet, his sword flickering out of his hand and disappearing. Almost instantly, he started to fall down.

“Incoming!” he called out, and watched the Cultist straighten up.

“S-sentai, wait!” the Cultist made a small motion with his arms, as if to tell Genji to stop. “Not from above, not–”

Genji plummeted down, the wind whistling in his ears, his body shifting to fall faster, almost vertical, arms stretched wide at his sides, the exhilarating feeling of dropping from such height making his heart race in his chest, smirking–

“Sentai!”

The nanites surged forwards below him, black and impenetrable, swarming from where he’d jumped up, until he could barely see the ground below, or the Cultist.

“Ah. Right. _Shit_.”

Genji plummeted down below and the nanites surged upwards to meet his fall, swarming around him, and Genji panicked, pushing his arms in front of him as if wishing to stall them, but they moved closer, surrounding him.

“Shi–” his hand snapped forwards, fingers stretching out as he opened his mouth, about to call for his sword again…

The nanites covered his suit, blinding him, the world turning into a dark, living darkness, and the pain hit him like a punch, ripping the words out of his mouth.

Genji screamed.


	9. Chapter 08

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go! The chapter you were all waiting for!
> 
> Also, I'd like to say that this is one of the chapters that I've wanted to write since i started the fic, one of the scenes i was looking forwards to do, and also was written like. 2 weeks ago too.
> 
> I'm also ahead of a few chapters because my life belongs to this fic so you have certain updates at least for the next few weeks even if something happens and i slow down my writing (im currently writing chapter 12 rn)

**Chapter 08**

Winston woke up to the loud, aggressive sound of the base’s warning alarms blasting into his ears.

He shot up instantly and rolled out of bed, flailing as his arms and legs tangled with the sheets and blankets, and for a moment he fought with them, kicking and wriggling until he finally got free.

Heart rate accelerated by the spike of adrenaline, even as his mind was still fuzzy, sleep clinging to him like glue, Winston twisted back to grab his glasses from the nightstand, pushing them up his nose; the room shifted back to focus around him, the alarm clock on the wall informing him that it was still night.

“Athena, what seems to be the problem?” he called out, voice muffled by a yawn.

There was no answer, and that in itself made Winston freeze.

“Athena,” he repeated, this time with a steely edge to his voice. “Port number two-six-five. Report immediately.”

A bright red light flashed past one of the screens in front of him, before the familiar symbol appeared in its place, though not Athena’s face. “There was a breech in the defense protocol of the base,” her voice answered back. “Most of my processes were downloaded and are currently out of the base. I am processing at a speed and capability lowered down to 20%.”

Winston blinked. Then blinked again. “Uh… care to… care to repeat that again?”

“The defences of the base have been compromised. The base is currently in shut-down mode. My main processes have been split –80% of my AI has been downloaded into Genji’s sentai suit following the sighting of an unidentified flying object which appeared to cause a reaction with the Cultist’s orb in our possession. Only 20% of my processes are currently available, and most of them are busy identifying what is causing the alarms.”

Winston pushed his glasses above his head, and rubbed his face with both hands until he could see little dots of light flash behind his closed eyelids.

“Alright,” he finally said. “Continue your work and report at once the moment the danger has been identified.”

“Understood.”

Winston checked the time again and frowned. He had been asleep for a little more than an hour, and yet in that time, Athena had seen fit to investigate on her own… no, with Genji… something outside the base, without alerting him first.

He left his bedroom, rushing through the corridor with a hurried, agitated pace, palms and feet making soft, dull sounds as he reached for the closest room, tapping his knuckles against the door. A small button unlocked near the handle, and Winston aimed his finger right and pressed it.

It did not take long for the door to slid open and Hana’s face to appear. In the background, an upbeat music that he’d been unable to hear before.

“Yes? Is it important? I was–”

“Sorry to… uh, disturb you, but we have… a thing.” Winston scratched the back of his head, conscious about not mentioning anything incriminating in case Hana was streaming or in voice-chat with her online friends. “I would like to, uh, talk with you… outside of your room.”

Hana’s room, as per her request, was insulated during her gaming nights –the only accommodation she asked for. It allowed her to immerse herself in having fun during her nights off duty, and the only way to call for her was through the front door, using the alarm Athena had set for this specific purpose.

Hana’s face sharpened, her lips growing thin as she nodded, her smile fading into a stern expression. “Give me a second.” She went back inside but left the door open, though Winston refused to peek in.

He heard her muffled voice, reassuring her friends she would be back soon, then the console went quiet, music falling into silence, and she ran back outside. “I’m here,” she told him. “What’s the problem?”

“Athena went out patrolling with Genji and came back alone. She is running some tests, but I do not know what happened to Genji. We might have to, uh, move pretty quickly if he’s in need of help.”

Hana nodded, a small tilt of her head, but before she could speak up, Athena’s voice interrupted them over the inter-coms. “Winston, you need to come to the Observation Room right now. We have a problem.”

Winston and Hana exchanged a small look.

“I’ll run to get Angela then we’ll join you,” Hana told Winston, and dashed down the corridor before he could answer.

When he got to the Observation Room, Winston noticed that three of the screens in front of him were dim, but the other two were active, one showing the outside of the base, and the other the familiar symbol of Athena.

“Athena, report immediately,” he called out, ambling into the room and squinting towards the view of the perimeter outside the base. “What seems to be the problem?”

“The remaining 80% of my AI has attempted to enter the base,” Athena answered promptly, “it is the cause of the security breech. The defences have detected an infection in my main processes, and the AI drone used to return to the base has been quarantined promptly and is now subject to extensive tests to prevent the base from being endangered. Estimated time for the end of the testing… 15 minutes.”

Winston blinked, scrunching up his nose. “Wait. What about… what about Genji? Wasn’t Athena with him?”

“Genji was not with my main AI when she came back.”

“Have you… can you interface with the rest of you to ask…”

“The preliminary protocol security tests are still running,” was the reply. “Estimated time left until the end of the testing is 14 minutes. I am slowly assimilating the leftover processes as they are found untouched by contamination.” A second passed by, then “One eighth of the remaining processes have been assimilated back so far.”

Winston sighed, the adrenaline in his body preventing him from fully relaxing. Athena was doing her best, but it was still a slow process. He needed to know why she had seen fit to investigate without alerting him first, though he knew it was probably due to her being adamant he got some rest, but Genji was not back with her, and if he needed help, then…

He paced up and down the room, glancing at the view of the outside of the base to have something to occupy his mind instead of his own thoughts. Everything looked calm, even in the dark.

“Athena –an update?”

A few seconds trickled by, the screen with her symbol flickering for a moment, then she answered. “I left to follow an unidentified flying object that was located above the base. The Cultist’s orb reacted negatively to its presence despite the masking system of the base, and I thought prudent to leave to collect a sample.” The switch in speech signalled Winston that Athena’s processed had merged enough for her main AI to connect back fully –an improvement. “We were attacked as we attempted to make contact. The unidentified object was a black sphere of unknown source, and the moment I sent a probe at it, it opened to reveal a swarm of non-active nanomachines.”

Winston froze, but Athena continued, turning his fears into reality.

“They seem to have locked on Genji’s genetic code, though a few have tried to attach themselves to my processes as well. I had to leave Genji behind in order to come and alert you –he needs help, and the matter is rather pressing.”

Winston curled his lips up, revealing his teeth, a rumbling sound coming from his chest that grew into a proper growl.

“I need the coordinates, Athena. I also need you to call the Masked Vigilante, and if it is possible, leave Lucio a message. He might still be awake.”

Behind him, he heard a door open and he turned around, facing Hana and an awake, though tired, Angela.

“We need to leave the base right now. Genji is out there and alone and needs some backup. Athena –finish the tests and monitor the nanomachines that have attached to your drone and make sure they do not contaminate more of your AI. I will leave as well.”

“Winston, what happened to Genji?” Hana did not cower in front of Winston’s barely suppressed rage, but she did sound worried, as he rarely left the base to join them on their raids.

“Hopefully, nothing yet, but we need to move and fast.” Winston straightened his back, an expression of concentration on his face. “Genji needs some help.”

***

For the first time in the past six months, Zenyatta had felt hope.

The sentai had tried to be casual, telling him he would want answers, afterwards –he probably meant about the nanites, what Zenyatta knew about them– but after so much time spent trying to get one of the sentai to listen to him, to get _Green sentai_ to listen to him, Zenyatta had never felt happier.

He had a chance –once the threat of the nanites was gone, he could finally be able to explain to the sentai what had happened to him.

Maybe he would not have to rely on the mala they were experimenting on… maybe, finally, luck was turning his way. Zenyatta had felt hope, and had not wished to waste this chance.

Unfortunately, in his haste to get rid of the nanites, Zenyatta had made another mistake.

He had observed the Green sentai fight for months. He had watched him, admired him, he had memorized his fighting patters so he could par them easier without harming him, so he could minimize the danger of being hurt by him if the sentai tried too hard…

Zenyatta knew how excited Green sentai could be. How easily he could rush into danger, unless guided or unless facing a threat with his group, who could manage to curb that side of him.

Unfortunately, Zenyatta was not part of the sentai, and had split from Green sentai so he could set up the trap without the nanites interfering, trusting him to keep ahead until Zenyatta could signal to him that he was ready and they could proceed with their plan.

And then, the sentai had jumped high in the air, presumably to get a look at their surroundings. From there, he had seen the orbs Zenyatta had placed around an empty, barren area, but instead of falling back down and then lead the remaining nanites to it, he’d reacted differently.

Zenyatta had looked up sharply, feeling the dragon’s presence coming from above, and for a second, he even forgot about the throbbing pain within his core and the cold of the Discord coating his body, lost in the sight of the Green sentai’s form glistening in the dark, coated with the soothing power of his dragon.

For that one second, Zenyatta had been reminded of his admiration for the sentai and everything he stood for. He had looked majestic and strong –the only one of the sentai Zenyatta had ever managed to connect with, even if barely.

He was using his dragon to keep himself high in the air, and the sight was… _striking_ –enough that Zenyatta felt a little jolt within his chest at the sight.

The shimmer of his dragon vanished from around him all of sudden and Green sentai shifted a little, arms spread wide.

“Incoming!” he called out.

And just like that, the moment was shattered, and Zenyatta, startled out of his staring, understood what was going to happen, and felt a jolt of fear.

“S-sentai, wait! Not from above, not–” Zenyatta made an aborted motion with his arm, but it was already too late to stop the sentai’s descent.

He dropped down, and Zenyatta scrambled to move, to stop him, but the nanites that had been left behind to hinder him, the ones he had kept at bay until then, surged forwards, just enough to make him falter, causing a painful, sharp twinge within his chest. He stumbled, hands trembling, and watched as the sentai fell.

One second of free fall, then another, Zenyatta’s fans so loud in his auricular receptors, then another second, and then–

The nanites rose like a wall of darkness.

Zenyatta could not see the sentai’s face, but he knew when the shock and the realisation hit him by his body language. Green sentai jolted and waved his arms, pushing them in front of him as if to stop the nanites… but it was too late.

With a curse that even Zenyatta could hear, sentai plunged directly into the waiting nanites, and they swarmed around him, closing down on his frame, engulfing him–

“Sentai!”

–and then the screaming started.

Shock cursed through Zenyatta’s body as he forced himself to stand back up, his forehead array fizzling offline as he watched the nanomachines –and the sentai’s body, hidden beneath layers of them– fall heavily on the ground.

Behind him, the remaining nanites shot straight towards the rest, joining the ones already around the sentai.

“No!” Zenyatta took a step forwards, and his body sang with pain.

The activated nanites buzzed and the sentai screamed from within the swarm, and Zenyatta almost stumbled back, but he caught himself, and shook his head.

He couldn’t–

He couldn’t let the sentai… no, not Green sentai, not when they’d been so close, so close to finally managing a connection between them, not when he knew what would happen, not when the nanomachines were changing him right in front of him and–

Green sentai screamed again, the anguished sound ripping right through Zenyatta’s frame, and he watched, sensors buzzing loudly, as the sentai’s frame started changing.

The bursting of something massive from his back was what sent Zenyatta’s brain processors back in action.

No.

No. He couldn’t. He _wouldn’t_.

He was there in front of him, and he was hurting, and screaming and in pain, and Zenyatta was there, and he… he had no idea what he could do but he couldn’t wait and watch without doing anything, fail someone else like he had failed the omnic, he had to…

Zenyatta’s feet moved even before he’d fully decided.

He stepped forwards, and then again, slowly, his body sluggish and burning as the nanites, activated but still in the process of changing the sentai, reacted to his presence. Just being there –just getting closer, he could tell they were affected by his presence, slowing down, but that also proved to be bad, because they were still changing the sentai’s body, and…

The swarm of nanites shifted slightly, jolted by Zenyatta’s approach, and he could see below them, what was left of the sentai’s helmet. Half of it was gone, turned into what looked like a giant, glossy bug’s eye, fragmented and black, and Zenyatta’s head snapped back in shock, a whimper ripped out of his synth at the sight.

Zenyatta could barely stand, shock mixed with pain, but he was not close enough, and the sentai’s body still changed.

Inside his chest, his core was grinding, and Zenyatta felt it stutter, fans spinning and processors faltering and ending under the heavy, constant pressure of the pain.

Still, he forced his heavy limbs to move, and he stepped forwards again.

And again.

Another step, and his legs gave in under him. Zenyatta toppled over, fingers digging into the crumbled mix of rocks and cement underneath him, gasping as his body rocked in pain, the tentacles covering his mouth piece curling around one another, his body rejecting the pain, processors trying to stop themselves from reacting to the nanites.

The ones on his frame were buzzing and writhing all over his chassis, and Zenyatta felt like a thousand ants had decided to walk all over him, and like each step electrocuted him, yet…

He forced his arms to move, he grabbed the ground tightly in his fingers and dragged himself forwards again, even as electricity flared up from his joints.

Closer, and closer still –the sentai’s body was just a foot away from him, writhing in agony, and he could not stop it.

_Closer_ –

The sentai screamed loudly again, arching his body away from the ground, fists punching the concrete, digging into it, pieces of debris flying around due to his desperation even as his arms continued to change, growing longer and thinner, multiplying–

“N–no!”

Within him, Zenyatta felt the Discord swell and threaten to take over him, and he pushed it down. He pushed everything down, including the tendrils he’d used to shield himself against the nanites, in fear it would take over, in fear it could reach the sentai and worsen his change, and the pain in his body doubled instantly, almost sending him reeling back, sobbing as it wracked him.

Warnings beeped at the edge of his vision but Zenyatta ignored them and again, he dragged his tired, unresponsive body forwards.

If even his presence could do anything, if even just _being there–_

The sentai’s head snapped towards him, his body arching away from Zenyatta, then towards him, and he looked in so much pain, part of him already changed, a mismatched mix of monster and human, green everywhere, nanomachines growing sluggish, slower, slower–

“I… won’t let them… have you–” Zenyatta hissed, his voice box crackling with electricity, purple sparkles flickering around him. “I won’t–”

He stretched one trembling arm forwards, fingers splayed apart, and with every ounce of all the energy he had left, Zenyatta tried to synch with the nanites surrounding the sentai’s body.

[ _Retreat._ ]

His order was direct, sharp, protocols overriding safety measures, opening all pathways, disabling his firewalls, directly interfacing with the enemy nanomachines.

The nanites rejected him, buzzing closer to the sentai, curling around him and shielding themselves from Zenyatta’s reach, and yet he moved forwards again, closer and closer, inch after inch, and interfaced with them again.

[ _Cease._ ]

Synapses connected and slipped away, processes starting only to get culled and sent back, Zenyatta’s brain almost faltering under the pressure, the nanites rejecting him, pushing him away, burning, and yet.

Yet, he tried again, even as the sentai’s body continued its slow, agonizing changes, legs stretching, midsection thinning, half-grown wings sprouting from his back, then getting reabsorbed–

Again.

Zenyatta pushed forwards, and with one last, desperate stretch, pain so strong he almost offlined, his fingers brushed against the nanites on the sentai’s arm.

Zenyatta’s mainframe _connected_.

His own nanites surged forwards, part of his body disassembling, his processors severing the connection with most of his servos, cutting off the pain, focusing on the aggressive, barely activated nanites.

[ _Enemy._ ]

Zenyatta focused, tugged, _ripped_ the nanomachines away from the sentai, and his own nanites burned to obey, clashing against the blank-state nanites with vicious anger, fighting and assembling, mingling with them, and tugging them away.

It was painful, but unlike the pain of his own change, Zenyatta _chose_ this, he went into this and controlled it, and though it made no difference to his body, creaking and bending under the strain, it made difference to _him_.

The sentai would _not_ be harmed.

He was here. He was–

[ _Terminate aggressive nanomachines._ ]

[ _Enemy. Absorb. Tame. Terminate._ ]

The nanites fought back. They swarmed up, swirling to attack Zenyatta, and he tugged at them again, calling them to him, and slowly, before his optical receptors failed, he watched them retreat from the sentai to focus on him –the threat, so close, too close to them.

There was hope still.

Zenyatta would fight.

Around him, the nanites’s buzzing was like the thundering, overwhelming noise of a storm, the only sound he could hear now, louder than his own rattling fans and the warnings beeping in his system, louder than the strangled screams from the sentai, and Zenyatta continued to pull them to him.

Away from the sentai, _away_.

More and more nanites reached for him, and he accepted them all, more than he could stand, more than he could fight with, and more came still, and his own surged to fight, empowered through their final state, pushed by Zenyatta’s steely control over them.

He tugged and pulled–

[ _Reverse protocol, reverse the change, pull back, come._ ]

[ _Defeat the enemy._ ]

Zenyatta’s protocols faltered under the pressure, the enemy nanites angry and buzzing, rejecting his control, rejecting the attempt to terminate them, but they were mixed together now, confusing, assimilating and assimilated, and precarious and–

More processors failed within him, damaged and overtaxed.

Zenyatta felt his core stutter again, this time for a few seconds, depressurizing, fans bumping up whatever remained of the allotted protocol priorities, but he ignored them, culled more, focused on the nanites before they could retreat back to the sentai, and continued to pull them to him.

Nothing else mattered.

He had to do this –if there was one thing he had to do, it was take the nanites away. His entire world dulled out except for this one directive, and he made it his main.

Distantly, away from the thundering roar of the nanites, he was aware of his own glitching, static-y sounds of pain, and how the rest of the world was so quiet, so silent –had the sentai stopped screaming? Did the changes stop? Was he helping?– but he could not see, and soon his auricular receptors fizzled into silence as well, not enough regulation processes to keep them working.

All of Zenyatta focused on the nanites and on his fight.

[ _Reverse. Cease. Come._ ]

[ _Enemy. Defeat._ ]

His consciousness wavered under the pain, the enemy nanites louder than his own, already weakened by prolonged exposure, but Zenyatta clung to the fight, not willing to allow his own defeat to mean the sentai’s doom.

Yet it was hard, so hard, and every second passing by it got harder, and Zenyatta’s consciousness slipped again, almost offlining for a fraction of a second.

No. He could not fail. He would not–

His mind screamed, default directives scattered, and a part of him –a tiny fragment, helpless, afraid of failure– tried to reach for the Iris again, slipping away, bumping into nothingness, Discord swelling in its place, surging upwards to fight the nanites instead, cold and absolute, and Zenyatta rejected it, backed away, screamed–

And a roar answered him.

He could not hear it, not properly through disabled auricular receptors, and yet he heard it, loud and clear.

It vibrated through his entire frame, his core burning to the sound, a single fraction of a second where Zenyatta remembered the confines of his own body, and its presence on the ground, separate from the pain.

The roar echoed loudly within his mind –not outside, but _inside_ – and though it sounded pained, it was enraged, and frightening, and powerful still.

The dragon.

It was–

The dragon surged forwards.

Green light exploded within Zenyatta’s mind as the enormous, shining form of the Green sentai’s dragon rose between them, shattering the darkness into fragments.

Light.

He could not see the sentai’s body as his optics were offline, but his senses were still primed to the magical source of the dragon’s aura, and he could see that, and it was…

Beautiful.

It rose into the air, translucent, the green so vivid it was almost white, blinding, absolute, and for a moment Zenyatta thought it would attack him now, separate from its wielder, to destroy him and the nanites both.

Zenyatta reached out to it, willing to let the dragon surge through him to defeat the nanites, the pain blinding him, and instead the dragon curled around him.

The touch made the pain recede –not much, but a little. Slowly, gently, the dragon wrapped its giant, sinuous body around him, rumbling and growling, spires intangible as they went through his frame, seeping into his mind, merging with Zenyatta’s soul, and then deeper.

Detached almost, Zenyatta could feel…

Help.

The dragon wished to help, angered at the nanites, afraid yet furious, but not at Zenyatta, not at him, and the realization made Zenyatta’s soul feel at peace, if only for that one instant, that the dragon did not hate him, did not reject him, not like the Iris had, it did not…

Green light met the purple discord and merged with it, then went deeper, and deeper still and–

The Dragon roared again, and Zenyatta’s soul stretched towards it in askance, pleading and desperate, reaching out even as the nanites surged to devour them both and he screamed, the sound shattering through the silence, the note echoing with the dragon’s roar, loud and angry and defiant

And

–the green faltered, the purple faltered, darkness consuming them both, expanding through Zenyatta’s consciousness even as he screamed and fought–

_and_

–golden light pierced through.

It surged right through Zenyatta like a wave, like a broken dam, the dragon’s green, white light merged with it, soaking in it until there was only light, complete and bright and no more darkness, and then Zenyatta’s soul felt it burn through his body as the Iris blossomed through like sun through dark clouds.

The Iris blossomed from inside him, reborn anew, and Zenyatta’s body sang with its familiarity.

Zenyatta gave himself to the light and the Iris exploded from his frame, golden and absolute and unyielding.

The pain faded away, warmth replacing it, warmth that Zenyatta remembered, familiar and achingly welcome, dripping inside him and filling every inch of his frame and the more and more, pouring into him and overflowing.

Light, and warmth.

The roaring of the nanites ceased abruptly, and in its place was silence, and the sound of chiming bells, and a dragon’s roar from within him, and Zenyatta felt energy surge up where before he’d only felt pain, his body reconnecting with a jolt, processes revived and recharged, startled back to life as the Iris and the Dragon both wrapped around him, pushing the nanites away.

Zenyatta rose from the ground, golden arms sprouting from his back, twisting as they grew into being from hands to tentacles, changed due to his form and yet still _his own_ , still the Iris, accepting him anew, his optical and auricular receptors fizzling back online, his world exploding with images and sound.

Yet, part of his brain felt almost detached, the warm, comforting light of the Iris wrapped around him like an embrace, the strong presence of the Dragon still somewhere there, not fading but feeding on the Iris through him, curling in his mind in lazy spirals.

Warm, and secure, the Iris washing away all the pain until all that was left was the dull reminder of it, somewhere in the back of Zenyatta’s head, like a bad dream lingering after a long night.

And One within the Iris, Zenyatta was again _whole_.

He looked down, optics seeking out the sentai, and saw him on the ground frozen in place, body partially covered with nanites, still mid-way through his change, but aware, and awake, and staring right at him.

The Iris amplified his senses, and he could feel, now more than ever, the sentai’s emotions.

He felt the blind fear, and his pain, so clear and sharp in the forefront of his mind, almost overwhelming his soul.

He felt the seated ache in his muscles and his tiredness, his doubts and the discord within his soul, the panic… but he also felt his connection to his dragon, and a trickle of awe at the sight of Zenyatta in a halo of golden light.

So clear, so real, and he also felt, right there, the distinction of human and monster, the nanomachines and their work, and with no thought at all Zenyatta lowered himself until he was back to the sentai’s side, glowing arms reaching out, secure now, the Iris beckoning him forwards–

[ _Reverse the change. Obey. Cease._ ]

The Iris burned further, so blinding that even his optics were affected, golden eating away the world around him until he could no longer see anything except its light, but he felt…

The nanites receded.

Under the imposing, devastating force of the Iris, the Nanites bowed, and faltered.

Slowly the were muted, silenced, sluggishly obeying as they were forced away and down, and further down, and Zenyatta _pushed_ forwards again, six translucent tentacles dripping golden light as they embraced his body and the sentai’s and _pulled_ , and

[ _Gone._ ]

The Iris left his body slowly, the Dragon’s presence flowing out of his mind at the same time, and Zenyatta slumped on the ground, wheezing.

The soft, ethereal glow flickered off, the Iris receding from him, only leaving behind its impression, a warmth that he’d sorely missed, and the resplendent tentacles wrapped around his frame for one more second, out of his control, as the Iris seemed to embrace him, for a single moment, before they shattered into fragments of light, and then they were also gone.

After the burning light from before, Zenyatta’s optical receptors took some time to recalibrate and adjust back to the night.

In front of him, also on the ground, shaking and panting, was the sentai.

His helmet was back to its normal appearance, the shape of the dragon head gone, but gone were also the nanomachines, though Zenyatta felt a little bit too full, his body almost sluggish and weirdly heavy.

The sentai looked… normal. There was nothing monstrous of his presence, and his aura was completely human to Zenyatta’s senses, still primed for input yet sore.

He was safe.

The sentai was safe, the dormant nanites had been conquered and defeated, and they were both safe, and…

Zenyatta brought one trembling hand to his throat, the tentacles around his mouth piece wriggling slowly as he clenched his fingers around his voice box to restrain a quiet, broken sob.

He had touched the Iris. The Iris had–

“You…” the sentai’s voice broke the silence, and Zenyatta, startled out of his trance, looked at him again. For a moment he hesitated, too weak to move, his legs unresponsive even after the Iris replenished his energies, still washed out after having used it, body thrumming with the ghost of the pain from before, and heavy, and he felt a sliver of fear, but then the sentai surged forwards, grabbing his arms with both hands, his grip steely. “You _saved_ me!”

Zenyatta’s synth let out a small, startled chirp, the unexpected contact making his sensors fizzle. “I–”

“You saved me! You… the nanomachines had… but you… and…” seemingly unable to form a full phrase, the sentai appeared to realise he was touching him, because he let go as if burned, though he did not move away, shoulders and hands trembling. “That… that golden glow, and… my dragon was… and you saved me! You took away the nanites from me even after they…” he shuddered, flinching, and Zenyatta couldn’t help but mimick the motion, knowing far too well what he had just avoided, “but you _saved_ me.”

The last part was breathed out in shock, like a secret the sentai hadn’t wanted to admit until then.

Zenyatta’s synth crackled and he cleared it. “Are you alr–”

“I knew it!” the sentai startled him into silence again, his voice explosive, happy and… was there smugness in his tone? Then, as if surprised by his own loud voice, the sentai started to laugh, still shaking. “I knew it! I knew it! You weren’t really… you weren’t…” and again, the laughter was swallowed out into a hushed whisper. “You weren’t really evil. All this time, and… and… _you weren’t evil at all_.”

It took a second for Zenyatta to process what the sentai was saying, but once he did, he felt his core stutter and fill with shock.

The sentai _believed_ him.

He finally–

“Oh, I thought it could be… I couldn’t really believe it, but… I started putting all the pieces together, and then Stephanie called Jesse, and I just… I wanted so hard to find you and confront you and then all this happened and I…” the sentai caught himself, still shaking, laughter bubbling out of him again. “What… what were those things?! What were they trying to do… what–”

Zenyatta curled up on himself, unable to take everything that had happened, overwhelmed and feeling like everything was a little too much for him.

The sentai believed him –the sentai had _touched_ him– and he was not cowering, or trying to harm him, and then the nanomachines, and he’d reached for the Iris thanks to the dragon and…

Everything was just too much.

Unable to stop the trembling in his own frame, zenyatta was startled when laughter, shaky and crackling with static noise, broke out of his own voice box, short and clipped.

“So…” he did not glance up at the sentai, part of him afraid he would reject him again if he did, that if the sentai looked at his monstrous appearance he would back away again, and the spell would be broken, “you… will you… listen to me, now? Green sentai?”

And with that, the sentai’s laughter was cut off again, leaving him panting a bit, the aura around his body serious and sharp –and what a startling realization it was for Zenyatta, to realise he could feel more than just discord now, as if the Iris wasn’t gone for good now, as if…

“Yes,” and the sentai’s tone was quiet, perhaps a little wounded, his aura full of something that felt like regret. “Yes. I will.”

 


	10. Chapter 09

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for all the support you've offered so far :D i still have no idea how long this fic will be, but i'm having fun writing, and i hope you'll keep on having fun reading!
> 
> The comments you leave fuel me to write more! (and in fact, i'm so fueled i have up to chapter 14 already written LOL this is the real power your nice comments give me! so. thank you! i appreciate them more than you think!)

**Chapter 09**

Genji’s body was aching.

There were probably bruises forming from his flailing and from when he’d hit the ground hard, and he knew he would feel them the next day, but…

After the searing pain of the nanomachines… compared to whatever they had tried to do to him, a few bruises were nothing.

If he thought about it, he could still feel them –biting through his suit, into his skin, making him feel like his body was getting eaten alive…

Genji blinked, biting the inside of his cheek, and the ghost of the pain blurred away. He was sore, but he would take it without complaining.

In front of him, the Cultist was still looking down, away from Genji’s helmet and completely still, and Genji had to wonder –did it hurt the same for him when he’d forced the nanomachines away from Genji’s body, tugging them to himself?

If it did, Genji knew there would be no way he could express his thanks now. He was pretty sure he’d just saved more than just his life.

And…

There were so many things he wanted to ask, questions rushing to the front of his mind –how did he know about the nanites? Where did they come from? What happened to him, why was he living in the city, was there anything true of all the things everybody had known about the Cultist? Why did he save his life, what was the golden halo that had surrounded him? Why… why did Genji’s dragon reach out for him, almost as if knowing…

“Who _are_ you?”

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them, and he stammered for a second when they seemed to startle the Cultist, head snapping up to stare at him.

This was different –he looked tired, weary, the glow of his forehead array dim, but Genji could still see him in his mind, surrounded by gold light, with tentacles forming an arch behind him, reaching out for Genji, stopping the pain and replacing it with warmth, and with something soft that was like the feeling Genji got whenever he connected to his dragon, only amplified, so strong…

This Cultist was not strong or distant, the monster Genji had faced so many times in the past. The monster he’d believed him to be until then. _This_ Cultist was…

“My name…” the Cultist hesitated, his synth crackling with static. “My name is Tekhartha Zenyatta. I am one of the Shambali.”

The words registered in Genji’s mind, but for a long moment, they made no sense. The Cultist had a _name_ –Zenyatta?– and did this mean every monster had one, or… then, the rest of what he’d said finally clicked in Genji’s mind, and his eyes widened behind his helmet.

The Shambali.

An order of monks –mostly comprised by omnics, but there were many human initiates within their ranks, and many human volunteers all around the world– that preached for peace, who worked hard in humanitarian missions in most countries, had temples and followers everywhere, and was active on the omnic rights front.

“Wha– what?” repressing the urge to rub at his face, Genji shuffled a bit, then noticed how his movement seemed to make the Cultist tense, and stopped. “What do you mean you are one of the Shambali? How does that –how does it even work you’re a mon–” before he could continue, the Cultist flinching at his words, there was a flare from within his mind, his dragon huffing, and he bit down on his words and fell silent.

He lifted one hand so that the Cultist would not speak up, and then closed his eyes, attempting to make sense of the entire situation.

Tired and aching, it wasn’t exactly the best time for a heart-to-heart talk, but…

Did this mean the Cultist had been converted by the Shambali’s beliefs? Was it something that worked even for monsters?

But no, that made no sense whatsoever.

Stumped and not understanding where the conversation was going, Genji opened his mouth to speak again, but this time the Cultist interrupted him.

“If you allow me the time to address your concerns,” he said, calmly, even as his synth glitched again, “I will explain. Rushing through something, being hasty even in seeking out knowledge… it might direct you down the wrong path.”

Startled and chided, Genji felt a sliver of irritation, but then he felt his dragon huff, more responsive than it had been in months, and he quietened down, aware that it had been his dragon who had trusted the Cultist –no, _Zenyatta_ – before, who had refused to attack him even in jest, and who had left the safety of Genji’s mind to…

Genji had rushed into danger in the first place, condemning himself and the Cultist to that horrid, absurd pain, endangering them both by not waiting it out, and even before, he’d taken so long to just trust his own instincts, time that might have helped them avoid all of this…

And it wasn’t the first time his actions had put him in danger either.

“Forgive me.” Genji swallowed down his pride and shuffled, sitting with his legs crossed.

The distance between himself and the C– and Zenyatta was enough that if he wished to, he would be able to lean forwards and touch him, and it surprised him to realise that he could feel no animosity towards him, no amount of distaste or immediate rejection, unlike before.

All his suspicions, all his aggravation, all the innate disgust at facing monsters… he could feel none of it.

His words made the Cultist look up sharply, the tentacles surrounding his mouth piece halting for a moment, and Genji’s eyes looked –really looked– at him.

This up close, the Cultist truly did look like a mechanical being, but there were so many more details Genji could see now, even if the only light around them was the soft glow of his creepy orbs surrounding them, now that his own sight was not sharpened by the dragon within him. Things he had never noticed before, when he’d been so blinded by the distrust.

Instead of focusing on his apology, the C… _Zenyatta_ shook his head slowly. “I understand it is not easy. We have faced one another for months as enemies, and suddenly having to trust someone you consider evil is not easy, but… I do not ask you for your trust. I ask you to simply listen to me, and maybe, afterwards, I will also be able to offer you proof of my words. Is that alright with you?”

Genji swallowed, his mouth dry, then offered a curt nod. In the back of his mind, his dragon rumbled in satisfaction, and quieted down, disappearing from his senses, and Genji was truly left alone with the Cultist.

Zenyatta.

“The nanites that attacked you,” Zenyatta started, carefully choosing his words, “what they were going to do to you…” Genji shivered, phantom pain a ghost on his body “it was what happened to me.”

A beat. “What.”

“If I had not stopped them, if I had not… if the Iris had not helped me halt the process, you would have ended like me. A monster. That is what they were created to do–”

“No no no no no,” Genji felt panic curl inside his chest, cold like ice. “No. I can’t– no. What? Like you? But you are…” slowly, Genji understood what it meant and he choked on his words, fighting the urge to back away from Zenyatta, even if he was not at fault for the panic that threatened to swallow him. “You were… but–”

He did not even think about denying Zenyatta’s words –not when he could remember the nanites stretching his body, the vile feeling, not fully hidden underneath the pain, of his body stretching and twisting, _changing_ …

Genji fought the urge to dig his fingers into his arms, feeling as if his body was on fire, ants crawling all over him at the thought that if he’d been alone, if no one had come to help, he would have turned into something… _something_ …

At his size, light flared up and Genji’s attention snapped to it, only to see one of the C… of Zenyatta’s orbs hovering close to his head, glowing the same golden light that had enveloped Zenyatta before, and he felt its warmth seep into his bones, reducing his panic little by little until it was under control.

Eyes wide at the gentle, welcoming feeling from what had only ever been disquieting, golden instead of purple, Genji turned to look at Zenyatta, only to find him staring in shock at his own orb, his array burning green and his eyes just as bright, tentacles writhing around on the lower half of his face.

“I did not think I would be able to ever feel the warmth of the Iris again,” he murmured, reverently, the longing in his voice so obvious even Genji could hear it. “For a year I walked in the shadows, hoping yet uncertain, my footsteps blind on my way, but now… thanks to you, to your dragon…” he turned to look at Genji, and it was shocking enough to hear the gratitude in his tone, let alone to be able to see it so raw and unrestrained, and Genji was left speechless. “Again I found myself in great debt, Green sentai, and not one I will find a way to repay soon.”

“No, listen– there was nothing… no debt I just… I didn’t do anything… again? We fought… we were enemies, how can you say… _listen_.” Genji shook his head, trying hard to understand, but it was difficult, and the amount of information he’d received, none of which made any sense, was baffling. “What is this?” he pointed at the orb, which was still looking at him, eye burning green and golden, “No. I mean. What… what did the nanomachines do to _you_?”

Zenyatta turned to look at him once again, the orbs surrounding him glowing an eerie green.

“All that you see when you look at me, sentai. I was not like this, before. One year ago… one year ago, I was but an omnic monk, travelling across the world. Then, just as you did, I was found by a black sphere, but unlike you… nobody was there to help, and this is the result.”

Finally – _finally_ , Genji understood.

The cold that the golden orb had dispelled returned in a rush, hitting him like a punch in the stomach, and to avoid panicking again, Genji stumbled on his feet, even if he could barely stand, and backed away from Zenyatta, pacing around the small clearing, hands clenching and unclenching on nothing.

“You…” Genji looked back at Zenyatta, who slowly stood up to face him, quiet and silent. “This isn’t how you looked… the nanomachines turned you into a _monster_.”

A nod.

“And they would have done the same to–” he hesitated, hands clenched into fists, teeth gritted beneath his helmet. “–you tried to tell me. All this time. You tried to… and I didn’t want to–”

“You could not have listened to me, sentai,” Zenyatta stopped him, gently, so very gently, and Genji shook his head harder, a pool of guilt so strong it stole his breath away. The orb returned to his side, balancing the panic a bit, but Genji could not calm down. “Listen to me. Green sentai – _listen to me now_.”

With a startled gasp, Genji looked back at him.

“You have felt it –the rejection against the monsters. The distrust, the disgust. It is… a natural reaction humans and omnics share towards creatures such as… such as I. Few can control it, fewer have a resistance to it. You had that. I could feel it. I do not know if it is because of your dragon and its connection to the Iris–” despite his confusion, Genji made a mental note to pursue this conversation further, later “–or if it is you, but… you had it. It is why I tried to talk with you for so long, why I was hoping to convince you to listen to me, while your companions did the opposite. If you’d been alone, maybe… but you were not. I had… given up on it, hoped that maybe if you could have one of my mala, you might be able to reach a similar conclusion on your own, but then…”

Genji pushed his breath out through his gritted teeth, understanding. “But there was no time, huh? Because the… that black orb… it attacked me, and you didn’t want me to end up like…”

“… like me, yes.”

“Oh, shit. Oh shit. And all this time you were…” Genji took a step towards Zenyatta, and his brain finally made the connection. “The monsters you took away from us. You didn’t save every single one we fought with. But many of them… you appeared and took them away. We thought you were building yourself an army, that’s why we called you the Cultist, but… you were helping them. They are… there’s others. Like you. How many? How many were…” he choked on his own words, catching up with them, eyes wide in shock. “ _How many_?”

“I do not know. Before I arrived here, I knew of none, but I was scared and alone, and refused to look. Since I settled here, though… I could feel them. I could not let them get hurt, so I did the only thing I could –I chased them down, and took them away. There is no way for me to know how many exist out of this city as I was not turned in this location either.”

Genji crouched down, digging his fingers into the sides of his helmet, and let out a loud, pained hiss. He heard Zenyatta step towards him, possibly worried –oh, they had been so blind, they had known nothing at all– and he did not want to look up, because it would mean acknowledging his faults, the sentai’s faults, and–

“Green Sentai!”

There was no time for anything else.

A column of pink, sparkling light rose between him and Zenyatta, who stumbled back, still unsteady on his feet.

Genji had a fraction of a second to recognise it for what it was –Hana’s Defense Matrix light barrier– before something huge and heavy slammed on the ground at his side, and a pair of enormous, furry arms wrapped around his midsection.

He screamed when he was hauled up and over a massive shoulder, and he scrambled to grab the edge of a lab coat as Winston bounced away from the barrier and from Zenyatta, Genji slung over his shoulder.

“Green Sentai! Are you alright?!” Angela was at Winston’s side right away, and her healing beam filtered through Genji’s body like a quiet balm.

It was such a contrast with the warm light that Zenyatta had shared that Genji shivered and tried to get away from it, the cool beam almost weird on his skin as it searched for damage that was not there.

“An– White Sentai, Winston! What are you–”

“We’re here to save you! Athena came back saying you were in danger, and we got here as fast as we could!” from above them, Hana hovered in her mech, her face serious. “You’re safe now. We’ve got this!”

“No! Wait!” pushing himself away from Winston’s shoulder, Genji dropped back on the ground and stumbled, legs still weak, and took a few wobbly steps away from them, lifting both arms to keep them away. “It’s not what you think!”

“Now it’s not the time to discuss over your misplaced interest for that monster,” Angela hissed, her beam still attached to Genji’s body.

“No!” Genji looked up and watched as Zenyatta backed away from them, all four of his orbs secured around him.

He… he was tired. And hurt. He’d just saved Genji’s life.

“Don’t you dare harm him!” two more steps backwards, and Genji was effectively standing between the sentai and Zenyatta, arms splayed out, protectively. “He just saved my life! I won’t allow you to harm him!”

Winston and Angela shared a worried, confused look before Angela detached her beam from Genji. “Winston, it might be worse than expected,” she murmured, though Genji heard her. “If Ge– if Green sentai was left alone for so long with those nanomachines… and now there’s the Cultist with him, maybe…”

Winston’s face twisted in a scary grimace, his teeth pulled into view, and Genji couldn’t help but flinch even if it was not directed at him but behind him, to Zenyatta.

He glanced back again, and found Zenyatta staring right at Winston, body tense and stance wary. Genji realised that he’d never met Winston before –he’d only ever seen the sentai, not their ‘boss’.

He turned to look at Winston. “I was not –the nanomachines are gone now. Zenyatta has–”

“Green sentai, we’re going to help you now. Don’t worry. Winston can look at you and he’ll fix it. Whatever that monster did to you, we’ll fix it. We still have his orb. We’ll make sure he doesn’t come near you anymore, I promise.” Hana’s tone was serious and heavy, the promise almost vicious, and Genji shook his head again.

He cared for them, and their determination to help him made him feel happy but–

“No! You are wrong! Just listen to me! You weren’t _here_!”

“Green sentai,” Zenyatta spoke, and Genji watched as his friends tensed up, though he was not allowed to finish whatever he’d meant to say, because Hana flicked her wrists and her mech’s lasers fired at him.

“Enough! I’m your opponent now!” Zenyatta stumbled backwards to avoid the beams. They had been standing in the middle of the empty area, so there was nowhere to hide. “White sentai, support me!”

“I’m here!” Angela turned her beam towards Hana and it flickered white as it connected.

“Now we’re talking!”

“No!” Genji was still there, standing between them, and yet it didn’t seem like it mattered –Angela flew above him, and Hana engaged in her propulsors, shooting up in the sky and then down, straight at– “Sentai power attack, Dragon Blade unleashed!”

The blade appeared in his hands in a flash of green light. Genji almost stumbled at how much energy it required from him, energy that he’d almost completely depleted during the fight with the nanites and their vicious attack on his body afterwards, but he could not let his friends harm Zenyatta, not now, not when he knew the truth and when he needed to find out more.

Zenyatta was…

Shit. An innocent. Just as much as the other citizens. Just as much as the monsters they’d fought with in the past and almost…

“Stay away from him!” Genji lifted both arms in the air, and ignored Winston’s shocked cry as he dashed towards Hana and Angela.

They were expecting him to engage against them, probably thinking he’d fallen prey of the Cultist’s lies, but he had no intention to fight, or harm them.

Instead, he slashed the ground, his blade cutting into the concrete like butter, rising a sudden, impressive cloud of dust and debris, momentarily blocking Hana’s line of sight.

Genji had merely wished to stop them, stall them enough that they could listen to him, even if he had to call forth his dragon to do so, but what he had not expected was for Zenyatta to stumble backwards, his legs unsteady, and run.

“No, wait! Zenyatta! I promise I won’t let them hurt you! Wait!” he turned around, ready to run and chase him, but Zenyatta’s body wavered under his sight, nanomachines bubbling all over his frame, and one second later he disappeared from sight. “Shit!”

The sudden, massive roar of Winston made Genji wobble, the noise so loud it vibrated right through his chest, and he turned around, blade in hand, to see the cloud of dirt dissipate and fall back on the ground, revealing Hana, Angela and a very angry Winston standing there, staring at him.

“Gen–”

“You don’t get to say anything!” Genji snapped at Winston.

His costume flickered and disappeared from sight, the last of his energy gone, and so did his weapon. Genji remained standing, panting hard, and glared at his friends. He knew part of his anger was misdirected, he knew they didn’t know any better, and that he’d been just like them before, and he was, most of all, just angry at himself, for not seeing the truth, for not being better, but he was angry, and Zenyatta had just ran away from them, and…

“You know nothing! All this time! All this time and none of us knew anything! And he was _trying_ and he’s alone! And he saved my life!”

“The Cultist is–”

“That’s not his name! _We_ called him that, but that’s _not_ his name! He’s Zenyatta! His name is Zenyatta and we should have helped him! And now… you don’t know anything and you have to listen to me!”

Winston’s hand dropped, and he was clearly conflicted, but also not convinced –and neither were Angela nor Hana, who was still in her mech, and looked ready to take off and follow Zenyatta.

“Genji!” Angela stepped towards him, hurriedly, and reached out for him, worried, but he did not let her, taking a step back as she was getting closer. “You shouldn’t let your sentai suit go like this! It’s dark but there might be… the Cultist could be still around here! It’s irresponsible of you! Just… listen. We’ll let him go and you can come back to the base and have Winston and I check your vitals and–”

“I’m not coming back! I can’t let him go like this, there’s so much more he still has to tell me!” Genji gritted his teeth, face flushed. “I’m going to find him. And then I’m going to listen… I should have done that since the start, I should have trusted my instincts. And my dragon. And he’s… he’s been alone and he’s– he’s not a monster. He’s Zenyatta. And when you’re ready to listen, too, I’ll come back. But. Not… not now.”

“Genji, wait!”

He did not listen, nor did he look back as he ran where he’d seen Zenyatta disappear, using what little strength he had left to jump upwards on the nearby, broken down building, leaving behind his team as he sought to find where Zenyatta had gone.

***

Genji stumbled through an empty street, looking around. “Zenyatta!”

Nobody answered, but then again, he had not expected him to.

Zenyatta ran away because the sentai had attacked him, and with Genji in such a state, it was difficult to believe he would be able to stop them, and… Genji was worried; would Zenyatta think Genji was going to ignore everything he’d said and just… return to his team as if nothing was wrong?

He would never.

“Zenyatta! I’m here! Come back! I’m not letting–” Genji bit down on his tongue and cursed. He was not in his sentai costume anymore, and calling out for a ‘monster’ like this… in the middle of the night, in a residential area… and he’d been about to say he would not let the other sentai hurt him which could be… interpreted badly.

They’d already had to fight some bad press earlier in the year, some prick trying to discredit their job for cheap views on his vlog. He didn’t need that to happen again.

Unfortunately, Zenyatta could be anywhere, and his skills in hiding were so good none of the sentai had ever found him before, so if he decided to hide again, Genji would never find him…

No. He _had_ to find him.

“Dragon,” he whispered, gritting his teeth. “I know you are tired but I need your help again. You have touched his soul, you should be able to recognize him now, feel… the something he had within him that saved me earlier.” He straightened his back and took a deep, calming breath. “Sentai power attack, Dragon Spirit unleashed!”

His dragon answered to his plea, slithering into view for a second, coiling its spires around Genji’s shape, and then settling on top of his head –only that instead of his helmet, since he did not have his suit on, this time it took the shape of a pair of sunglasses, green tinged with silver.

“Thank you,” Genji murmured, rubbing a finger down the ridge of his shades.

Something flickered in his vision, enhanced through his dragon’s help, and he could see… it was a map of the city, or at least that was what it looked like. It was stylized, but there was a moving purple dot on it.

“Yes!” he pumped his fist in the air and then jumped on top of a nearby wall, looking around. It took him only a few minutes to be able to find his bearings and realise where the dot was, but once he did, Genji started to run, not caring if he would be seen, as the streets were emptier now than they had been before.

As he ran, though, his mind kept returning to what Zenyatta had told him, and then to his fellow sentai. He had to go back and make them listen, but they hadn’t before, would they ever, unless he provided some proof?

Zenyatta had promised he would give him some, but Genji did not need that, not anymore –Zenyatta had saved him, and his dragon had willingly turned to him for help and at the same time refused to harm him, so… no, Genji trusted him now.

But his teammates would need something more than that.

He fumbled with his pockets, sliding out his phone, and quickly punching through a specific number, letting it ring. “C’mon… c’mon… pick up…”

After the sixth ring, he heard the familiar noise of someone answering on the other side, and then a scratchy voice, muffled by sleep “who t’fu– Green sentai?”

The voice was… clearer than normal, and a part of Genji’s mind focused on it, finding it familiar in a weird way, but as most of his attention was on the glowing dot inside his shades, he did not stop to think much about it.

“Yes. It’s me, Masked Vigilante. I need your help.”

There was some more shuffling, and then the Masked Vigilante’s voice turned clearer. “What’s up?”

“I… something happened. Not… not anything good but I had… my chance to talk with the Cultist.” It felt bad to refer to Zenyatta with that title now that he knew his name, but he couldn’t reveal sensitive information through the phone like this. “Can we meet?”

“Uh… wh–what? Like, right now? Green sentai it’s–” a pause “three am. Are you alright? Do you need some assistance? Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m not hurt. But I can’t talk on the phone. We can meet…” he checked the dot again, racking his brain to find somewhere close by that could work, “Near the mall. I’ll make sure you can find me. I need to close the phone so no one tries to find me using its signal, but I’ll be near the mall on the lookout for you.”

“Alright. I sure hope it’s nothing bad. Hang in there Green sentai, I’m coming.”

Genji took a deep breath, shut down his phone, taking out the battery, and ran a little faster.

***

Zenyatta stumbled a bit, recalibrating.

His body was still heavy, the weight of the nanomachines he had absorbed offsetting his balance, but as he was tired and aching, he did not have the focus to start running maintenance diagnostics on himself.

Not yet.

The imperative for him was to find a safe place, as returning to his usual dwellings would be impossible now, but soon it would be morning, and he needed to be out of sight.

The arrival of the rest of the sentai had been… unfortunate, really. Zenyatta had hoped to have more time, just a little more –enough to finish telling his story to the Green sentai, so that he could at least be ready, so that maybe he could talk with his teammates, and…

And now, Zenyatta felt doubt creep inside him, slow but insidious.

He was tired, and his body ached. The Iris had cleansed him of the pain, but his servos were strained, his processors almost overclocked, and all he wished was to rest, body about ready to give up and shut down for a recharge cycle.

As he stumbled around, searching for a safe spot, he called back his remaining orbs to him.

He had no strength to keep them too far, even if having to give up, albeit momentarily, on the newly turned omnic hurt him. There was the last black sphere to consider, too, and he did not dare to recover those two orbs yet –so in the end, with the four he still had on him, he only got two back.

Zenyatta knew he was in trouble when, in an unfamiliar part of the city, a sudden red warning flashed across his vision and his legs gave up under him, sending him stumbling down on the sidewalk.

There was no one around, and he sorely needed to rest, so he curled up as much as he could in a corner of the street, hidden from sight by a tall trash can and by a parked motorbike, and pressed the back of his head against the wall, the soft hum of his core keeping him company in the silence.

He would rest, just a little –enough to get some energy back to move and go somewhere safer, and even if he could not move, at least he could still think.

Green sentai had listened to him. Finally, after months, he had listened. Now he _knew_ –and considering his attitude, and how he had accepted Zenyatta being close, wishing to listen and to protect him instead of fighting, Zenyatta was sure that he would not turn his back on him anymore… he chose to trust him with that.

Green sentai would not let him down. Not now that he knew.

“Zenyatta!”

Startled out of his train of thoughts, Zenyatta jolted, optical receptors snapping online. He had not noticed he’d almost fallen asleep, but the shock cursing through his circuits sent him back to wake, any trace of sleep gone from his processors.

He looked up.

There was an unfamiliar person standing there, and for a moment, Zenyatta felt a vertigo of confusion. It was a young human, with shocking green hair and a pair of weird sunglasses on his face. He was dressed casually, though a little too light for the cold of the night, and there was a metallic glint on the lower half of his face that spoke of mechanic augmentations.

Wariness and panic filtered through his circuits for a second –a human had seen him!– and then his senses stretched out and felt…

Green sentai’s dragon, wrapped tightly around the human’s soul. Just like…

“G… Green sentai?” even then, Zenyatta did not understand what he was seeing, brain muddled with weariness, optical receptors whirring as they tried to focus on the human’s face. “What…”

“I had to follow you –you looked pretty beat and I was… I was right. Look at you, you… can you even stand? You look like a wreck– I mean. Uh. Sorry.” The human –Green sentai?– brushed one hand through his hair, awkwardly. “I couldn’t let you run like that, I didn’t want you to believe I would side with my friends and I…” hands tugging at his clothes, Green sentai did not get any closer, allowing Zenyatta some space. “I thought I would trust you with something important, as you trusted me with your name. I just thought it would be fair, so I… this… this is me.”

Seconds ticked by, and then –Zenyatta understood.

Forehead array faltering in shock, Zenyatta straightened his back to stare at the young man in front of him again, this time cataloguing all the details of his face. He was young –ayt most in his mid-twenties, no older– and though his hair was green, Zenyatta noticed there were black roots peeking here and there. The shape of his face was pleasant in a way that even Zenyatta could recognise, though he’d always had little interest for pretty faces, but what truly caught his attention was the human’s voice –it was so similar to that of Green sentai, only not masked by his helmet.

This human _was_ Green sentai.

“You are… the one underneath the mask,” he murmured, voice laced with shock. “You… you chose to reveal your secret identity to… to me?”

Green sentai looked uncertain for a moment, hesitant, but then he nodded, eyes narrowing a little as he crouched in front of Zenyatta, so the two of them were on the same eye level. “Yes. My name is… I’m Shimada Genji. I’m Green sentai, and my spirit is the green dragon. I… I did you a great disservice, Zenyatta. I am here to make it up, and help you. You are… you are not alone anymore. Please lean on me from now on.”

Even though his words sounded stilted, Green sentai not used to this kind of stuffy speech, he was completely honest, his heartfelt offer burning true in his aura, and Zenyatta was startled into silence, optical receptors focused on Green… no, on Genji’s face.

“I… it is a pleasure to meet you, Shimada Genji,” he finally murmured, core fluttering as he accepted Genji’s reveal and all that it meant. “I will do my best to keep your secret safe.”

At that, Genji’s lips stretched into a wide, sheepish smile, and at the sight –this was Green sentai, the one who had saved Zenyatta’s life not once, but _twice_ – Zenyatta’s core heated up, just a little bit.

“I know you will,” Genji said, self-assured and with no trace of sarcasm, and then he offered him one hand. “Now… do you want to come with me?”

“… yes.” Zenyatta hesitated for a moment, staring at it, almost reaching out for the offered hand before he flinched and shuffled up on his own, back straight. “There is much I still need to explain.”

 


	11. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so very grateful this fic has been doing so well and so many people are reviewing, it honestly pushes me to write more and more! Thank you everybody!
> 
> Also there's more plot coming :D And please check the ending notes!

**Chapter 10**

_~Five months earlier~_

“There’s been, uh, something bothering me for these past few weeks.”

“Hmm? What do you mean?” sprawled on one of the armchairs in the Observation room, Genji kept tapping the screen of his phone, idly flipping through various pages of his game’s item bag.

“Well, I was monitoring things around the city, and uh–” Winston trailed off for a moment, and Genji looked up.

Winston was tapping away on the massive computer keyboard placed in front of him, the screens full of data, schemes and numbers, but nothing Genji could understand from where he was sitting. “You’re always monitoring things. What’s wrong?”

From the other side of the room, Hana rolled over on the couch and threw a pillow at him. “When you said you had rare goods to trade with me I thought you mean something worth it. I don’t need this cheap-ass pile of rubbish, Genji!”

“Hey, it’s a rare edition potion that raises attack stat–” Winston cleared his throat, managing to sound both intimidating and awkward, and Genji turned back to him. “Sorry Winston. You were saying?”

“Yes. Hum. There was a, uh, series of reports that have been… worrying me.” he did not turn around, his fingers tapping away at the keyboard, but a screen flickered white and both Genji and Hana turned to look at it, Hana craning her neck uncomfortably. “I did not want to brief you without further info but… there hasn’t been much so far, so I thought I could still speak to you both about it. I will debrief the others when they are back from their patrols. It appears there were sightings of a new monster in town but so far… it has been… mostly inactive.”

“Why ‘mostly’? If it’s wrecking shit over the city, shouldn’t we just… go and get him?” Hana mimicked punching the air, and Genji nodded, agreeing with her. “Isn’t that what we’re doing here? Other than you know. Training and being bums when not on active duty. Last mission I had was with Lucio _last week_! Genji’s been going out on patrol almost every night so far!”

“That is because, uh, he’s faster and less conspicuous than you are, Hana.” Winston did turn around, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Out of your mech you cannot move as fast as he does, but your mech is… bulky, and loud and… it takes up a lot of space. Most of the time the monsters can be easily startled through, uh… you know, stealth. You work better on field missions against the bigger, dangerous ones.”

“But we haven’t had one of those in at least a _month_!” Hana shuffled until she was on all fours on the couch, pouting in a way that should have been cute if they weren’t discussing maiming and eradicating monsters. “Training isn’t the same and D.Va will get rusty if I’m not using it much!”

“You know it’s not possible, your mech is polished and taken care of, and–”

Genji tuned them out with a smile, squinting instead at the screen of the computer. Athena noticed him looking, and helpfully zoomed in on the images.

Most of them were somewhat blurry –and in an age of technology, it was a feat to see how nobody could take some decent pictures still– but Genji could nonetheless see the features of the monster, and frowned, his smile fading away.

It was… weirdly shaped, and he looked almost… metallic. Maybe it was just flare lens or due to the bad quality of the photos, but it did look like most of his body was covered with armour. That was… rare. Also, there were blurry balls surrounding him, floating? Though that could, again, be just the bad quality of the picture, and… Genji squinted. Were those tentacles on its face?

“That looks a lot like one of those monsters you find in horror movies,” he commented, leaning forwards to get a better look. “It even has broken chains dangling from its wrists. Talk about cheap B-movies. What did it do? Why didn’t we hear of it earlier? Usually monsters get… violent quickly.”

Winston blinked and looked between Genji and Hana before clearing his throat again. With a flick of his wrist, the pictures changed, this time bringing up a map of the city with a few red dots here and there. “It’s been spotted engaging other monsters, so we think he’s attempting to create an alliance with them. There have been a few minor encounters with some eyewitnesses and they ran away quickly to avoid confrontation, though we’ve been told he’s already harmed many, and they say…” Winston changed the picture back to the weird purple monster, whose eyes seemed to glow a sickly green, “you see those balls around him?”

“I bet Genji can see the balls well–”

“Hana!”

“–well, those… _orbs_ … they appear to be somehow connected with the monster. They fly independently and some people say they get… purpleish and give off a very bad feeling if one gets too close. We don’t know much else because we have not met with this monster yet.”

“So you’re telling us to be cautious just in case?” Hana leaned on her arms, lips tilted in a small frown. “Why? We can just zoom in and shooooom!” she made a motion with her arm, mimicking an incoming explosion. “Bam! Gone!”

Winston shook his head. “This is… not the first of those monsters who chooses a different kind of approach, so to speak, but uh. Don’t you notice a difference?”

It did not take Hana much to notice as she looked at the unfamiliar monster in the pictures. “Oh! This is the first that has… detached parts! Oh wait –wasn’t there that one monster who could shoot needles just last week…?”

“I mean, sort of?” Winston scratched his head. “The porcupine monster was shooting needles as an attack, but this one… those appear to be always separate from its body, levitating around the monster and following it around.”

“So it’s an incognita, got it!” Hana punched the air in Winston’s direction. “Still gonna get it, just like the rest.”

Genji chuckled at her attitude, understanding where it was coming from, and with one last look at the monster, he returned his attention to his phone.

***

The city was quiet.

It was rare to encounter monsters at this time of the day –usually they appeared either in the dead of night or in the earlier hours of the morning to terrorize people. None of the sentai rangers or the organization backing them knew why there were sightings at specific times of the day, but it did not matter. Some monsters appeared in the area surrounding the city as well, and not all of them attacked the moment they appeared, so doing rounds around the city was their duty. Genji actually liked it, even when the coast was clear.

He snickered to himself as he bounced past a rooftop and to the next building, remembering Hana’s angry fit when she’d been denied patrol duty yet again; her mech _was_ loud, and though Winston was trying to work on its engines so it would be quiet enough to use for night patrols, for the present time it was still not implemented, so she had to stay home.

In a way, being alone on his patrol rounds… it made Genji glad.

After the incident, and the month he’d spent recovering, rehabilitating under Angela and her mentor to make sure he could breathe correctly and still do his job, knowing that Winston trusted him on his own again was… good.

He would not rush into danger again, he wanted to be better now, not risk everything because of his impulsive actions, only to regret it afterwards.

He’d learned his lesson.

That monster he had fought, with only his dragon on his side… yes, Genji  had needed to protect the others, but only because he’d made mistakes on his own. He had been hurt so much for a bit he’d thought he would not be able to be a sentai anymore, worrying his friends, his family… no. He would not do this ever again.

As he jumped across a street from one building to the other, he noticed some commotion happening underneath him, and paused on the edge of a balcony to check. Upon further inspection, it ended up being just a group of teenagers excited for the new sci-fi movie that was out in the theatres since the previous Monday, so he let it go and moved on.

The sun was slowly going down in the sky, tinging everything with orange hues, and Genji sighed, stretching his back.

Just a little longer, then he would be able to go back to the base, get some dinner and maybe join the rest of the normal, carefree population and go watch that movie. He was not a raving fan, but he’d been looking forwards to it for the past month or so, some good funny and fantasy thing, just what he needed.

Something flickered at the corner of his eye, and he stopped to turn around, squinting against the flares of sunset when he could see nothing.

Intrigued now, Genji spun around a streetlight, one hand wrapped around its pole to give himself speed, and then jumped over a car and onto a nearby fence, wishing to check on what had caught his attention.

Nothing there, really, except that as he blinked, he caught something moving behind a corner.

Again he attempted to get there to check and again he found nothing, and yet…

Once more, the corner of his eye caught something behind yet another corner, and just like that Genji gave chase, forgetting about his patrolling, more interested in checking on whatever was moving so quickly through the streets.

It was something small in size, and pretty fast, and though Genji never caught it in full sight, as it was always ahead of him, turning a corner or hiding behind a car before he could see it, he kept catching enough glimpses of it to keep him on the hunt, his interest now doubled.

Judging by the side and the position of it, whatever it was could not be a bird or a cat, though it was definitely floating, and it moved in straight lines, bobbing in the air.

He did not even realise he was headed for a dead-end until he found himself in one, taller brownish walls at his sides and coming to an empty end of the street, with only a dumpster bin in one corner and some ripped out posters on the otherwise barren wall.

Genji landed on the ground and looked around, frowning. He was sure he’d seen–

Something hovered right in front of his face, and he stumbled backwards in surprise. It was… an orb, one that could easily fit in his open palm, with intricate designs all over its surface, and otherwise perfectly normal if not for the fact that there was a big, green eye staring right at him.

“The fu–”

“Good evening, Green sentai.”

Genji felt a chill run down his spine as he stumbled backwards, eyes following the wall in front of him to the top. Someone was sitting there, casually, as if nothing was wrong, and it took Genji a few seconds to understand what he was seeing.

A monster.

Not any monster –the monster Winston had been talking about earlier that week, the unnamed creature that had started popping around in the past few weeks. In person, he was even more disconcerting than in those grainy pictures, and in the burning orange light of the sunset, he looked positively creepy.

Purple skin –and it looked metallic even in person, so it had not been just the quality of the photo– and green eyes, green dots on his forehead too even if his head was partially covered by a dark hood, and small, wriggly tentacles covering his mouth. He had huge bands around his wrists that ended in broken chains, and surrounding him were a lot of moving orbs, all of which had unsettling green eyes… and all those pupils were pointed at Genji.

He shuddered, tensing up, and realised that he had just done what he’d been so sure he would not do again –jumping into danger, this time without even realising it.

“I guess it’s obvious you’d know me. We’re pretty well known for slaying your kin,” he grunted out, fighting the repulsion he felt just by staring at the monster. “Here for a personal demonstration?”

For a fraction of a second, the monster remained quiet, but the orbs floating around him inched lower. “That is not why I am here, sentai,” his tone was smooth, deep, and Genji scowled under his helmet, annoyed for some reason. “Did you recover well?”

Startled by the question, Genji’s head snapped to the monster’s face. “I… h-how did you know?”

Winston had said this particular monster had been sighted no longer than two weeks before, but he’d been recovering for a month even before then, and conspicuously absent from patrols for that long. How could the monster know he’d been harmed and…

“I have my way of knowing things, sentai. Knowledge is a weapon, in the right hands.” There was something to the monster’s tone –something similar to bitterness, though not anger, but Genji wasn’t focused on that at all.

“You’ve been spying on us for that long, then?” jutting his chin out, Genji clenched his hands into fists. “No need to get comfortable with this place, then –you’ll be back to where you belong soon if you don’t resist too hard!”

“Oh, that would be appreciable if it was something that _could_ happen, but I do not find this viable at all, at this time,” the monster replied, still even, so calm and collected even as Genji grew more and more agitated.

He was used to monsters attacking him, spouting nonsense and acting high and mighty, not to… this.

This was more insidious. Dangerous.

“What the hell do you want, then? This is not your city, not your dwelling! You’d better just leave before you get a taste of what the sentai are all about!” he hesitated, then “unless you’ve already seen what we do, since you know so much about us.”

“I have been looking, and in fact, it is not hard to. The amount of creatures you fight is… rather high, in this city. It seems to be a popular spot for them to visit, is it not? It is why I got interested. You are why I decided to stay here.”

Genji felt another shiver run down his back.

For some reason, it sounded like the monster was talking about him, specifically –not the sentai in general, but maybe it was simply because they were talking, and due to the intense focus of those green eyes, unsettling and creepy.

He could not find any malice or threat in the monster’s voice, calm and collected as it was, and perhaps it was because of it that Genji felt, more than ever, the desire to run away, rather than confront this monster.

His head was buzzing in alarm, the monster’s presence enough to make him almost cower, but he refused to back down in front of a monster –not now, nor ever. He was a hero and heroes did not back down.

“I don’t care about your reasons for staying when nobody wants you here –soon you won’t have any choice in the matter, _monster_ ,” he grunted out, and though he had no idea why, the creature seemed to flinch at his words. Yet, he took pleasure in knowing he’d managed to somehow disrupt that calm appearance. “We’re going to get you shipped back to your disgusting world, just mark my words.”

“Yet I have no intentions of going against you, sentai,” the monster hummed, quietly, and the orbs surrounding him spun faster for a second.

One of them moved closer to Genji, who tensed up and backed away, expecting to feel whatever ‘bad feelings’ those orbs were supposed to cause, wary when nothing came his way.

He was glad the monster was sitting at the very end of the dead end and not trapping him in it. Bad choice for the creature, but good luck for Genji. He had no idea what this monster could do, but… the feeling he got, the pressure… he was pretty sure this was not a weak one. He needed to go back to his group.

Genji moved one hand to his helmet, ready to call for backup, but the monster stood up, making him stop and tense, ready for a fight. Instead, the creature called back his floating orb, and Genji had to admit Winston had been right. The amount of control he had on those orbs was absurd, but they did not seem to be part of his main body either.

“I did not try to contact you to fight with you, sentai. Not now, nor ever. I simply… worry about your health. Getting into any more danger as you are recovering, surely…” the monster hummed again, and Genji fought down the urge to lash at him, which was probably what he wanted –to destabilize him and get hum upset enough to forget his wariness. He wouldn’t. “Oh, but I do not intend to keep you. Unless you wish to stay and talk? I have all night. I do not mind.”

Genji hissed. “There is nothing to talk about.”

“Is there not? Yet I find myself thinking of many things I would wish to discuss with you, sentai. If you want me to promise not to harm you, I can also do so, and with pleasure –all I want to do is… talk, if you are willing.”

The monster parted his arms wide, palms towards the sky, in an apparent show of good will.

Destabilized, Genji hesitated.

It was true that until then, the monster had not attacked him –and though there had been sightings of him around the city, Winston had been the first to say the monster had not attempted to do much so far. And he was… interesting. Creepy but mysterious, and Genji thought, what if…

Beeping from his helmed startled Genji enough that he almost jumped out of his skin.

“Green sentai? Is there a problem? Your location device says you haven’t been moving for a bit. Please answer me, the others are starting to get worried.” Athena’s voice felt like a sudden cold shower, and Genji’s eyes widened behind his helmet.

He had been… about to listen to a monster? What was _wrong_ with him?

“Stay away from me,” he hissed, now angry.

Athena’s voice crackled in alarm. “Green sentai?! Who are you talking with? Are you alright?!”

“I see,” the monster murmured, though he sounded almost intrigued. He stood up, the orbs spinning around him now glowing a bright, sickly green, so unlike the green of his own dragon. “Yet, there is hope still,” he murmured, and Genji was sure, somehow, that the monster had been talking to himself, not to him. “For now, I will take my leave. Yet… Green sentai. My offer is still open, for you. All I wish to do… is talk. Nothing else.”

Genji barely had the time to blink and then–

He was alone in the street, silence his only companion as Athena’s voice rang in his ears with even more urgency.

“I’m alright,” he finally murmured, shaken and confused. “I think I just met with our… new resident monster, that’s all. I will come back and tell you everything.”

Well. Maybe not about almost listening to him.

***

_~Present time~_

The Masked Vigilante looked around, cracking his knuckles.

The area around the mall appeared deserted to his eyes. And cold –his costume was just fabric, no magic to keep the chill of the night out.

It was quite the change from where he came from, there was warm weather all the time.

Focusing back on the task at hand, Vigilante kept his eyes trained to his surroundings, though he could still see no one. Yet, Green sentai had assured him they would meet near the mall, so he would trust him to appear.

Looking around, Vigilante thought back about the brief call, frown hidden underneath his hat and the bandana on his mouth.

The tone had been urgent, and he’d tried to come as quickly as he could, but he was no ninja, nor did he have any special, specific powers to move faster like all the sentai had –he just had a bike, and he sort of regretted his costume in times like this, since… well, it was three am, and it was cold outside. He was but a simple man in a costume, doing his best as a farfetched hero.

“Masked Vigilante!”

He turned around, the familiar sight of the Green sentai coming into view from a small side alley, and he lifted one hand in greeting, grateful that his bandana hid his relief.

“I see you’re still in a single piece, Green sentai,” he called out, mindful to keep his voice low just in case there were people sleeping in the buildings around them. “Got me mighty worried there.”

“Ah–” Green sentai scratched his arm almost self-consciously, shoulders dropping, and Vigilante felt a residual flash of worry in his guts. “Yeah, but got to say I had a close call tonight.”

“You alright?” instantly worried about him –they were sort of friends, or at least the Masked Vigilante hoped they were– he took a step towards him, checking his suit and body for any visible wounds. “I see no missing parts at least. Good to know.”

That got Green sentai to chuckle, though he sounded weary, and this close, just by his body language, one could see he was truly tired.

“Thank you for coming,” there was warmth in his tone, the sentai so _grateful_ that Vigilante had accepted to come, and he felt a bit awkward, as he had done nothing yet, not really. He lifted both hands in the air, shrugging.

“No problem, pal. We’re friends, of course I’d come if you ask. But now, do tell me, Green sentai –the _fuck_ happened to you that you had to call _me_ this late, instead of like… your mates?”

There was a minute stiffening in Green sentai’s shoulders. “Actually… a lot of things happened tonight, but I… we need some help.”

“… _we_?” suddenly suspicious, Masked Vigilante tensed up. “I don’t see anyone else here.”

“Please, do try not to overreact,” Green sentai turned around and cleared his throat. “Zenyatta, you can come out! He’s not going to hurt you… I hope.”

Before Masked Vigilante could ask him what he meant, there was some movement from the alley behind Green sentai, and then –the Cultist stepped out from the dark alley, surrounded by a halo of green, glowing orbs.

He backed away before he could think, and his gun was out in a flash, directed at the Cultist’s head, trying not to pay attention to the way his hand was shaking.

In the dark, even with the streetlights, both Green sentai and the Cultist looked almost ominous, but neither seemed to move, even as the glowing orbs dimmed slightly, lowering their orbit a bit.

“Masked Vigilante,” Green sentai hissed, urgent. “Remember what I told you? That I wished to find a way to speak with… with the Cultist because I felt… I felt that something was wrong? And you –you were the one who supported me, and told me you’d help out anyway you could?” when Masked Vigilante attempted to speak up, startled, Green sentai spoke over him, not allowing him a word in. “Well. I did. It wasn’t on purpose –I mean, you wanted to be there with me but things happened a little too fast for that, and now I… I am asking you to just… trust _me_. He is not here to harm you, or me or… or anyone, okay?”

Masked Vigilante swallowed compulsively, still not looking away from the Cultist.

“Masked Vigilante.” Green sentai’s voice made him tilt his head his way. “Can you… trust me? Put down your weapon. He is not going to hurt you. I promise.”

Part of Vigilante wished to ignore Green sentai’s words, his hand shaking enough that he had to take his finger away from the trigger, in fear of shooting a bullet without meaning to, but another part of him wanted to focus on Green sentai, on believing him, on trusting him, but the sudden appearance of the monster had still rattled him.

A few seconds ticked by, Vigilante looking first at the Cultist –who remained motionless, quiet, hands folded in front of him and as still as a statue, the orbs lazily circling him, their eyes blinking slowly– then at Green sentai. He seemed calm, though tired and worried, but not in pain, nor did he seem in danger.

The Masked Vigilante took a deep breath. He wondered, worried, and then…

“Alright, pal. I’ll bite.”

At once, Green sentai’s body fully relaxed, shoulders slumping in relief –but so did the Cultist’s, suddenly breaking his stance, fingers curling together and forehead array flickering brightly. “Thank you, Masked Vigilante. I know I am asking a lot out of you but… _thank you_.”

“Never mind that,” he waved one hand, casually, even as he slipped his gun back into its holster, the move fluid and quick. He didn’t feel as confident, but he did not wish to show it. “What d’you need from me?”

Green sentai seemed to hesitate. “I think… I just wanted someone on my side,” he muttered. “I’m –we’re tired. My team is… not going to believe me, not now, but… I can’t… I can’t think right now. I just–” Green sentai groaned and covered the front of his helmet with both hands, as if forgetting he had a suit on. “We need somewhere to stay for the night, to rest. I want to face… I want to see the others tomorrow, but. Not… not right now. They would hurt Zenyatta, and I can’t– I can’t let them do that. I thought if I had someone with me, that you could…” he made a small, aborted motion between himself and Masked Vigilante, “… I don’t know, mediate?”

While masked Vigilante could understand Green sentai’s disjointed speech until then, this last part honestly baffled him, and he opened his mouth to express his disbelief but a small, chittering sound from the Cultist stopped him.

The Cultist was… chuckling.

 “What’s wrong with that? He’s good!” Green sentai sounded almost embarrassed, shoulders hunched up, and that somehow made it even more baffling.

“I’m… an ally, you’re one of them, if they think you’re crazy there isn’t much I could do to support the contrary, but uh–” Vigilante scratched the back of his head, awkward.

“No, no, I get that, I… I’m not that good with words, and neither are you,” there was an edge of amusement in Green sentai’s voice, and Vigilante had to snort at that, and at how ridiculous the entire situation was. “The one who’s good with words is Zenyatta and they wouldn’t even let _him_ talk. But having you here… it’s good. It’s enough. You’re already helping me just by trusting me with this, Vigilante. Thank you.”

Vigilante felt a little flutter in his chest, the realisation that sometimes this was all it took, just a little bit of trust, and his lips quirked up in a small smirk before he glanced over at the Cultist –who Green sentai kept calling Zenyatta– still surprised at how normal and not creepy that chuckle had been, and then–

The Masked Vigilante froze, something occurring to him, enough that his eyes widened in shock above the bandana covering the lower half of his face.

 “Wait a minute,” he looked over at Green sentai, then at the Cultist, and took a hesitant, slow step forwards, then another.

The Cultist tensed up yet again, but did not move away even as the Masked Vigilante moved closer and closer, though the orbs flying around him edged closer to his frame, their light dimming further, as if to shield him from the Masked Vigilante’s presence.

“Masked Vigilante…?” Green sentai was tense again as well, but he did not even look at him, his attention entirely focused on the monster in front of him instead.

This was the closest he’d ever been to him –the closest any of the sentai had been until then, and even though it was dark, his appearance was not what the Masked Vigilante was interested about.

“What the _hell_ ,” he murmured, finally.

Green sentai and the Cultist exchanged a glance, and though he could not read the monster’s expression well, and the sentai’s face was masked, he could tell they were both baffled by him. He took a deep breath again, and pointed a thumb at the monster.

“I don’t really feel any of that bad shit you usually have ‘round you,” he said, and though he’d wanted his tone to be conversational, faking a casualness he did not feel, he knew he had failed for he was far too surprised by that realisation to be able to hide it.

And it was the truth.

The monsters revolted him, their sole presence inciting disgust within his chest, his guts clenching the closer he got to one –it was why he preferred to keep his distance, stop them with a flash bang trick, and then shoot them from afar, with sharp, accurate aim. He kept fighting them because he’d appointed himself as some sort of heroic figure, a vigilante if not quite a hero, at least, and because that was what felt right.

He had seen the Cultist before, time and time again, and not this close –never this close.

Every single time, he had felt the same sort of distaste, the need to attack and destroy, or at least run away from him, sometimes stronger, sometimes not as much, but always present, never allowing him to forget how foreign, and alien, those monsters were, how repellent they were, how dangerous and unfamiliar it was to face them.

Now, he could feel nothing of it.

He looked right at the Cultist, and felt… nothing.

“Is it a parlour trick?” he asked, eyes narrowed in speculation right after, but Green sentai’s head snapped from him to the Cultist, not listening.

“He’s… he’s right!” his voice shifted an octave higher, not hiding his shock. “I didn’t notice but it’s… it’s true! What happened? Is it permanent? Was it that golden light?”

The Cultist looked down at his own body, slowly, hands opening and closing for a moment, the orbs surrounding him spinning faster for a second, circling him. Despite not having quite an expression to change, Vigilante thought he looked awkward.

“I… this has never happened, I am not sure what is the reason for this change. It could be either the touch of the Iris or the absorption of the nanomachines earlier. There is an abundance of them now, and it is… uncomfortable.” A beat, then “I do not think it is wise to continue this conversation here. There are several jobs that require people to wake up this early in the morning, and we both need some rest. I need to–”

“Yes! You are right, you need to rest!” Green sentai seemed to straighten a bit and turned to look at Vigilante. “Do you have a place for us to stay? Just for the night, enough that we can finish talking and then we can think how to contact the others tomorrow.” He turned to look at the Cultist again, his tone shifting to sheepish, “If you can, before sleeping, I would want to hear everything you have to say. It’s important we listen.”

“I have waited a year already, and I was on my own, Green sentai,” the Cultist replied, easily, hands curled together in front of him. “As you said earlier, now you are with me. I can wait a few more hours and besides…” there was a light, chiding tinge to his tone “no amount of rushing will change what happened. Rest is imperative, and no person should take more than what they can carry on themselves.”

Green sentai snorted, but he sounded amused. “Coming from you, after everything you’ve done so far… I believe you have carried more than twice your weight already. It’s alright to share. I told you –I will not desert you now.”

The Masked Vigilante observed them feeling like the odd man out, surprised by the tone of the conversation just as much as the participants of it, and he rubbed one hand on his forehead, afraid of the possible approach of a headache. It was far too early… or late… for this kind of thing.

“This feels like a feverish dream and I ain’t liking it,” he muttered to himself, but he’d given Green sentai his support before, and he had no intention to pass for a liar. Still, he’d just been asked to foster Green sentai and a monster and that was… a little bit too much.

“We can reconvene tomorrow,” the Cultist spoke again. The Masked Vigilante noticed he did not address him, perhaps respecting his wariness despite the lack of animosity he felt, and he… well. He appreciated that. The whole night felt more and more like he’d just stepped into another dimension. “You may wish to go with your friend, and I can return to my current dwelling.”

“Wait. But like… where do you live, Zenyatta?”

The Cultist’s tentacles wriggled a bit. “Oh, I made myself at home in the city’s sewers, and–”

“What? There’s no way I’m letting you go back there!” incensed and offended, Green sentai took a step closer to the monster, hand almost darting out to touch him before he thought better of it. “I don’t care. Even if Masked Vigilante cannot host us for the night, it’s alright. We can just… I’ll come with you there, then. One night won’t be a problem!”

Masked Vigilante let out a soft, unnecessary groan. “Now, now. There’s no need for any of that. This feels unreal already, just give me… give me a couple seconds, alright? It ain’t easy to watch a friend get cozy with a…” the Masked Vigilante stumbled over his words, suddenly conscious, and cleared his throat. “Anyway. No way in hell I’m bringing you to my house –that’s off limits. Secret identity an’ all that, sorry pal, but… uh. I know someone who knows someone, and well. I have a place in mind and tomorrow’s closed till noon. Should be alright to crash there.”

Green sentai turned to look at him, so quiet it almost scared him, then he nodded and moved forwards to grab his shoulder. “Thank you. I know this whole thing is… complicated and weird, but… he saved my life earlier, okay? I’ll… we’ll tell you when we’re somewhere safe. As for the rest… I…” he hesitated, the grip on Masked Vigilante’s shoulder tightening, “never mind for now. Lead the way.”

“Alright, Green sentai,” the Masked Vigilante murmured. “Hope you have some good explanation for what’s going on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For any zenyatta fans out there, I decided to make a Zenyatta appreciation week on tumblr, which you can find here with info about it :D if you love the bot, consider participating! [INFO POST](https://zenyattaappreciationweek.tumblr.com/post/170426192788/intro-post)


	12. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much! early update this week because tomorrow starts the genyatta week, so people will be more focused on it, so i thought about putting this out early so i dont impede the tons of new content :D
> 
> EDIT: NOW COMES WITH ART!! it's been done by kind tumblr user candycornskull and you can find it [HERE](http://candycornskull.tumblr.com/post/171312201528/this-scene-was-just-so-overwhelmingy-emotional-i) you can find the art itself in this chapter during the appropriate scene

**Chapter 11**

Of all things Genji had expected to see, a gym was possibly the last.

The building stood tall in front of him, unassuming in the dark; the streetlights flashed on the giant billboard of the gym’s name, and on the wide windowpanes that showed the machines and the training rooms inside, plunged in the darkness.

“This… place?” he asked, utterly befuddled.

“Yes,” the Masked Vigilante muttered, fumbling with a small pouch at his waist until he recovered what looked like a set of keys. “As I said, I know someone who knows someone… and this place is going to be alright until at least tomorrow ‘round noon. I will still have to make a call, and I don’t really fancy waking her up for it but eh.”

Shrugging a bit, Genji didn’t answer, and allowed the Vigilante to open the main entrance of the gym and smoothly make his way inside. He stepped to the side to let Zenyatta in first, and entered last, closing the door behind his back.

He was actually rather familiar with the building, which was why it was surprising the Vigilante also knew of it, but knowing the hero worked locally, it was probable some of his connections were the same Winston had.

“I know someone who works here too,” he mentioned mildly.

The Masked Vigilante led them further inside and made a small, wondering sound. “Wow, small world huh?”

Genji chuckled a bit then stifled a yawn. He resolutely ignored the way his body was demanding some rest, and instead made sure to keep an eye on Zenyatta, who was also slower than normal, footsteps heavy in the silence, clomping as they followed Vigilante through the wide corridors of the gym.

“Here, there’s a side room for the staff and they’ve got food and couches. We can… talk. There. Alright with you?” Vigilante opened the last room of the corridor, and Genji nodded to him as they all crowded inside.

He chose to ignore how Vigilante still inched away from Zenyatta anyway –he knew he could not get him to trust him so quickly, but that he had been willing to stay with them regardless of his own second thoughts was good enough.

Genji would just have to talk it out with him, but first…

First, Genji needed to do something else, something just as important as explaining everything to him and having Zenyatta finish what he had to say.

Vigilante went to the window and closed the blinds, then flicked the lights on, satisfied with knowing they would not be seen outside, then he plopped down on one of the couches in a corner and Zenyatta, mindful to keep his distance, sat down on the armchair farthest from him. Masked Vigilante seemed more than content with that.

“So,” Vigilante started, but Genji moved quickly in front of him to stop him.

“Wait.” He licked his dry lips, unsure how to proceed, insides fluttering with a mix of anticipation and anxiety. “I need to say something before we talk.”

Vigilante shrugged. “Shoot?”

Underneath his visor, Genji smiled.

He had talked with the other sentai about revealing his secret identity to the Vigilante, after months of fighting at his side, and they’d all been alright with that when the time was right. After all, Winston already knew who he was, though he was letting the two groups work it out at their own pace. Besides, Genji had already breached protocol by showing his face to Zenyatta, not that he cared about that, so doing this now…

It was just the right thing.

“We’ve been fighting side by side for a long time by now, right? And I think we can agree that we’re friends.”

“Uh… yes? I’d say so, yeah?” Vigilante’s voice sounded confused, but then he laughed. “If we weren’t, I wouldn’t be here now. And… you wouldn’t have called me, otherwise. So I’d hope so, yes.”

“Good. Because uh. I thought about doing this for a while but now… now is the right moment. I trust you with this, Masked Vigilante.” Genji took a deep breath, feeling his throat constrict in anticipation and worry, then he let go of the magic of his dragon, and his suit dissolved around him. “Yo. This is me, I’m–”

“Genji?!”

The startled, choked gasp coming from Vigilante was almost familiar –and so was the way he’d said his name, as if he knew it, and Genji stuttered for a moment, his jaw setting uncomfortably tight. “Uh–”

“Shit– I can’t believe I–” Vigilante shook his head, sounding so utterly befuddled that Genji waited, blinking, until the man removed the bandana from his mouth with a snap of his wrist before tugging the black mask from his eyes.

And just like that, Genji found himself looking into Jesse’s face, framed by his gaudy yellow hat.

For a few long, tense seconds, Genji and Jesse stared at each other, eyes wide in surprise, Genji’s mouth hanging open in shock.

“Jesse?!” Genji choked on his words, reassessing the irony of the situation, then he snorted and started to laugh, covering his mouth with one hand. “Oh shit. I can’t believe that was you all this time?! Here I thought I’d made two friends!”

“No, no, sorry to disappoint you, it’s just this one friend, but it’s like… one of those stupid coats you can wear on both sides. Only, only–” Jesse started to snicker, shoulders shaking, “Oh my shit _Genji_. I should have known. Only you could have that unhealthy obsession with green! Only you!”

“Hey! You said you liked my hair!”

“Yes but… c’mon, you’re _all_ green! That’s a limit!”

“Says the man with the yellow, obnoxious attire!”

“I’ll have you know,” Jesse attempted to say, “that I won’t take any kind of fashion critique from a giant lime.” He barely got through his line before he dissolved into snickers, shoulders shaking and unable to talk, and Genji soon followed.

It was a ridiculous situation, unexpected especially after the rollercoaster of events that led to this revelation, and Genji found out he could not stop laughing, the stress finally snapping now that they were safe, his stomach hurting with the strength of his laughing fit.

He did notice Zenyatta seemed to be confused by the situation, but the tilt of his head appeared amused, probably understanding that half of their laughing was due to the tension break.

“Z-Zenyatta, I’m sorry, it’s just…” Genji pointed at Jesse, laughter still bubbling out of his mouth, unstoppable, “we were.. we’ve been friends, but also… we were friends both as heroes and as ourselves and we never knew? And now… this is…”

“This is ridiculous!” Jesse tugged his hat off, catching his breath in huffy snorts. He pressed down on the badge on the front of his hat, and just like that his costume flickered and disappeared, as if sucked into the badge on the hat. The hat itself was the last to disappear, leaving Jesse holding the badge in one hand.

All that was left on him was–

“Jesse… is that your pyjama?” Genji had been recovering from his laughing fit, but at the sight of Jesse wearing a soft, comfortable blue pyjama covered in little white ducks had him fall back again, laughing so hard he got tears in his eyes.

It took him even longer to finally stop, as every time he seemed to recover, catching his breath and panting, wiping the tears away, he would look up and catch Jesse’s disapproving frown, and it would have him start all over again.

“You’re utterly ridiculous,” he gasped out when his laughing finally subsided for good, and Jesse shot him a baleful look, though his lips were twitching upwards, lower lip trembling in an effort not to laugh again.

“You called me so quickly I had no time to dress up, alright?” Jesse slumped back down on his seat, looking as grumpy as someone could while wearing fluffy pyjamas.

Finally, the two stopped laughing, and just like that, Genji felt part of the tension on his shoulders relax, just a bit.

With the rollercoaster of emotions he’d had for that night, it was shocking he was still standing. He stumbled a bit as he went to sit down, choosing a spot at Zenyatta’s side and slumping into the armchair with a tired hiss.

Yet, they still had to finish their talk. Just a little more, then he would sleep.

Jesse took a deep breath, crossing his fingers in front of his mouth, ready to get serious again. “I trusted you with my life while we were fighting against those monsters,” he said, in the end. “And I trusted you with my secret identity just as much as you did with yours. And I’m here because you said you had a good reason for… believing him.” He pointed at Zenyatta with his chin. “So. Now you gotta tell me, Genji, and make it convincing.”

Genji nodded, weary but not wary anymore, and then he started talking.

***

With a strangled cry, Genji jolted awake.

For a moment he scrambled around, fingers digging into the soft cushions of the armchair, feet digging into the floor, pushing his body away from–

Then he slumped down again, wheezing and shaking, eyes squeezed shut as the phantom pain of a million nanomachines slowly disappeared from his body, leaving him tired and aching.

He had been dreaming –it was a nightmare, but so vivid, and Genji had been unable to do anything but scream as the nanites worked on his body, every inch of his skin a pit of agonizing pain.

There had been no Zenyatta to help, in his nightmare –just him, alone. No dragon, no sentai rangers, nothing.

Just the pain and Genji in the middle of it, stealing his breath away, and hurting, hurting so much…

“There is disquiet in your soul.”

Startled, Genji’s eyes snapped open.

Sitting in front of him on another armchair, Zenyatta’s frame was partially hidden in the dark room, except for the glowing green eyes, the forehead array glinting from underneath his hood, and the similar, ethereal glow of his core.

“I, ugh–” Genji felt bile come up to his throat and he swallowed it down, clearing his throat. “You… did I… did I wake you?”

“Not quite.” Zenyatta hummed softly in the silence, and did not move any closer, respecting that Genji needed some space. “I do not require as much sleep anymore, not since I’ve changed. I have… fitful resting cycles.”

Genji rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands, pressing hard on them until he could see impressions of glowing inkblots in the back of his eyelids, then he blinked and focused on Zenyatta again.

“I’m sorry about that,” he murmured after a while. “I had…”

“A nightmare, yes. It is to be expected after the trials of last night.” Zenyatta hesitated, then “you are shaking, Genji.”

It was weird, to hear his own name spoken by Zenyatta –the whole situation was still unreal, and Jesse was right about it– but not in a bad way, just… weird. And Zenyatta spoke it softly, as if he did not wish to scare him, aware that his own appearance could perhaps make the memories of Genji’s nightmare worse, and it made things… a little less shitty.

“Well I…” Genji clenched his hands into fists, but the shaking did not stop. His skin was prickling, and if he closed his eyes he could almost feel the nanomachines all over him again. “I didn’t think I would… but…”

“Shock can do much about dulling traumatic situations, but there comes a time where you will have to face them nonetheless.” Zenyatta shifted and stood, moving closer to Genji’s armchair but not close enough, still mindful, still concerned, and Genji felt an ache inside his chest, different from that of his nightmare, but just as sharp. “If you will allow me, I would like to help.”

“How… how do you help with this? It’s just a– a bad dream and I’m just… tired and…” aware he was rambling, not entirely coherent, brain muddled with sleep and the phantom pain, so fresh on his skin it almost felt real, Genji swallowed and exhaled loudly, unable to snap out of it.

“It has shaken you. The experience has. I know. Allow me to help –you should not have to suffer on your own.”

Genji gritted his teeth, wiped his mouth and nodded, still shaking.

The nightmare was just that –a nightmare– but his body did not seem to care much for that, agitated and shaky and full of adrenaline, too busy remembering something that had happened mixed with things that had not, and he felt tense, stretched too thin, as if he would look away and his body would twist out of its shape, to become what he’d felt himself become in his nightmare, and…

“Focus on my voice, Genji.” Zenyatta sounded warm, and gentle, and his voice startled Genji out of his thoughts and back to what was real outside of them.

In the dark of the room, with only the two of them –Jesse gone who knew where– things felt softened, cottoned, and Genji shuddered, curling up on himself. He watched Zenyatta shift closer, stretching one hand his way, only to flinch and stop, curling both of his hands on his lap instead.

“Find your centre, Genji. Look down at your hands, and feel –every inch of them exists here, and now. Clench them, feel the resistance on your skin, the pull of your muscles… then relax them.”

Genji looked at them, as Zenyatta was instructing him. He clenched them, focused on the feeling of his skin –his real skin, his own skin, no nanites– and licked his dry lips.

“Now take a deep breath… do it slowly, inhale until you feel there is no more air you can take in, and hold it… slowly, very slowly. Focus on the way it fills you, on the burn in your lungs, expanding inside you. Breathe out and exhale.”

Zenyatta continued to talk, soft and gentle, and the whirr of his fans in the silence offered a continuous noise that, together with his voice, helped him distance himself from his nightmare. His quiet words walked Genji through rediscovering his body –his toes, his legs, making him stretch them off the couch, his shoulders, still so tense, his neck and chest and head.

It felt weird at first, but Genji trusted him and followed his voice, and slowly his tremors stopped, his body warming up with the breathing exercises, and after a while Genji found himself grounded again, the limits of his body reminding him that this was all of him, and nothing else –nothing monstrous, nothing evil.

He was still Genji.

The last of his tension fading away, he was left tired and weary against the couch, and when Zenyatta’s voice fell into silence, minutes later, an orb chimed and moved from the floor to his side, flooding the room with a pale gold shade.

Warmth seeped through Genji’s body like honey, filling holes he hadn’t thought were there, and soothing aches that were forming in him.

“Thank you,” he murmured, head pressed against the back of the couch, and looked at Zenyatta in front of him. “It’s been… a difficult night.”

Eyes and forehead array flickered brightly for a second, followed by a soft chuckle. “Indeed. For us both, I’d say –and for your friend, Jesse.”

Genji chuckled. “Hah, yeah. He didn’t even realise he’d unmasked himself in front of you at first.” He paused, allowing his thoughts to regroup. “You… you helped a lot. Thank you, really.”

“I used to have nightmares, when I lived at the monastery.” Zenyatta explained, his tone even, as if telling the time and not something about his own past. “My brother, he… helped me through them, after I was found. And later… I had students under me, though I left them once I started travelling, before this happened. Some of them also had… less than ideal lives before joining us. Talking helped.”

Humming in understanding, Genji thought about trying to sleep again, but he found himself more interested in continuing the conversation with Zenyatta instead. “You said you do not sleep well. Is it the…”

Zenyatta shook his head, the tentacles on his face quiet. “No, the nanomachines have nothing to do with it. Or… well. In part, probably.” Genji made a soft, curious sound, prompting him to continue. “I have… a particular connection with the Iris, which allows me to touch it. When I was corrupted…” Zenyatta’s frame shuddered lightly “and the connection was severed, all I had left was the Discord. The Iris itself in its duality is both harmonic and discordant, and walking a fine line of balance is important. I was left unbalanced, hypersensitive to all the negative feelings of those around me. I could feel…” his hands clenched on his lap, and Zenyatta looked away from Genji. “I could feel discord flowing to me from… everywhere. The city, its inhabitants… there is much discord in their souls, and it made… resting… particularly difficult.”

Genji winced at that. He was unable to understand how that worked but the idea of being forced to feel nothing except the bad, bombarded by it every day, and even at night, continuously…

The horrid feeling he’d felt only a handful of times on his skin, only stronger.

With a shudder, Genji refused to think more about it, focusing instead on Zenyatta’s frame, hunched on himself, his hands clenched tightly around one another on his lap. In the dark he looked even more closed off, and Genji felt something swell inside his chest as he stared at him.

The way he had almost reached out to him, but stopped, flinching. The way he kept to himself. How when Genji had offered him a hand earlier to help him up, Zenyatta had minutely flinched, choosing to stand up on his own. How he’d offered Genji so much support, and talked about the past, but had visibly restrained himself, and…

He paused and blinked, focused once again on Zenyatta’s faceplate. “How long did you say you’ve been… like this?”

“A little over a year now.”

Genji exhaled slowly, understanding seeping through him. A year where he’d been alone, on his own. Seconds ticked by as his fingers twitched, but he couldn’t… not like this, not… “Do you trust me, Zenyatta?” he asked instead. “I know it’s stupid to ask when all I’ve ever done is spout mean hate at you but–”

“I do, of course.” Zenyatta’s answer came quickly, his tone secure, as if there was absolutely no doubt in him. It was so placid, so instinctive, that Genji was utterly taken aback.

“…. uh–”

“You are… you are Green sentai. Before, you fought what you believed was right, without fail, and then… you were willing to give an enemy a chance. You allowed me to side with you against a common threat, and then you listened to my story. You trusted me with your identity now. Genji or Green sentai, it is all the same. I trust _you_.”

Something heavy and painful wrapped around Genji’s throat, making it almost difficult to breathe, bitter and sweet at the same time, and it burned the corners of his eyes until he blinked.

“Ah.” He swallowed, licked his lips and cleared his throat. “I. Uh. Yes. I mean…” he shook his head, overwhelmed by Zenyatta’s confidence, and then he shifted a bit, uncurling from the couch to move closer to him. “Then… then, I… huh. No matter what, it’ll always sound off so I’ll just tell you. Zenyatta… I am going to touch you now.”

The words seemed to startle Zenyatta, because he jolted in shock, and then Genji moved closer, allowing Zenyatta all the time to see him coming, to push him away or move, but Zenyatta seemed frozen, and Genji shuffled until they were standing in front of one another, then he placed his hands on Zenyatta’s shoulders, his grip gentle but firm.

Under his fingers, Genji could feel Zenyatta shiver and tremble, unused to the unexpected, willingly offered contact, and the lump in Genji’s throat tightened further.

“I know it’s been so difficult for you,” he murmured. “And I’m not… good with words at all. But… I promised you before, and now again. You’re not alone now. It’s alright. I will be your hero too. You had to be strong for yourself and for so many others, so it’s alright if you let others be strong for you now.”

Zenyatta’s forehead array burned green and then spluttered, his fans spinning so hard their sound was loud to Genji’s ears, and the tremors still shaking Zenyatta’s body made Genji’s heart ache just a little bit more, so he smiled, hoping he could convey his own conviction enough that Zenyatta would believe him.

He might look like a monster, but there was not a single trace of evil there, Genji was completely sure of it.

“You did great,” he said next, finding the silence too heavy to bear, tight around him, and suffocating. “I’m sorry you had to, but you did great.”

He watched as Zenyatta brought one shaky hand to his throat, where his voice box was, fingers curling around his neck, the tentacles on his mouth piece wriggling everywhere, and felt underneath his grip as Zenyatta’s shoulders shook just a little bit harder, the weight of both Genji’s words and his willingness to reach out for him too much for him to bear.

Mindful of his limits, Genji moved away not too soon afterwards, not wishing to overwhelm Zenyatta, and politely looked away as the other tried to hold himself together, until finally he stopped trembling, hands intertwined in front of him, the glow of his core and forehead array almost blinding in the dark.

“Thank you, Genji,” he murmured, so softly Genji almost did not hear it, his synth wavering.

Genji smiled again. “You’re welcome.”

***

Jesse had not meant to listen in –he was not that kind of person, and to be fair, when he had left the room for a jog to the loo, both Genji and the Cultist… no, Zenyatta… had been asleep.

But in front of the office room, hand on the door, he’d heard voices inside and had paused, hesitating.

When Genji and Zenyatta had shared everything with him, Jesse had his reservations still; of course he would, he’d spent months fighting and considering the Cultist an enemy, and to realise this might not be the case required a good amount of trust, and despite his words to Genji, Jesse still… found it hard to believe.

Yet, Genji’s conviction and Zenyatta’s soft, measured words now that someone was listening, had convinced him that something was up.

Nanomachines transforming people into monsters… at least it was more believable than the idea of the Cultist being able to bamboozle Green sentai to become his servant, and though sluggish, Zenyatta had also demonstrated that he was both organic and not, and that there were nanites on his body.

Trusting Genji’s instincts, Jesse had nodded along, still wary but not as before. After all, both Genji and Zenyatta wanted to meet the other sentai, and no one would willingly face an army of heroes like Zenyatta wished to.

Jesse had seen how easily the Cultist could avoid fighting, but had never seen him truly fight, and if he had to face the entire sentai ranger corps at once… well. Not even he could manage it out.

So, he was for now appeased, and willing to let Genji and Zenyatta rest.

Except.

Except, they were awake, and Jesse hesitated to join them in the room, and listened in as they spoke.

And afterwards, when he heard them shuffle and try to get comfortable and hopefully sleep some more, he quietly tiptoed away from the door again, walked down the corridor and then a little further, picked his phone from his pocket, and made the first of his two calls.

It took a few rings –more than just a few– for Fareeha to finally answer. “You’d better have a good reason to call me at… is it five am? Why are you even awake?!”

“Morning to you as well, darlin’,” Jesse chuckled. Her voice was heavy with sleep, and he could just picture her, bleary eyed and buried in blankets. “Yeah, you can say it. We had a bit of an emergency.”

“Are you alright? Do you require additional fire power?” Fareeha sounded more awake now, her tone steely.

“No, not now at least. But… I’m at the gym now, with…” he hesitated. “Did you know about Genji, Fareeha?”

A soft, quiet hum. “I suspected since. Well. I know about Angela.”

“Well. Yes, that’s… yeah, can respect that.” Jesse tapped his fingers against the wall, looking out of the window nearby and into the night outside. _Of course_ Angela was also a sentai. “Anyway, me n’ Genji are at the gym and there is someone else here as well. If… if Angela calls, don’t tell her anything yet. Is that alright with you?”

“Jesse McCree. Are you sure everything is alright? You wouldn’t ask me to lie to my girlfriend otherwise.”

“I’m not asking you to lie at all. I’m telling you to not tell your girlfriend where her friend is. Shit happened tonight, Fareeha, and… it’s not resolved yet. Genji needs to face his friends on his own but only after he’s rested a bit. So… can you do me a favour and not tell them where we are?”

“… yeah. I can… I can do that. But I expect you to debrief me afterwards, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah. I need to make another call before I crash and sleep a bit, but also… uh. Just a heads up if you planned on doing some early morning training. Don’t.”

A huff. “Alright, Jesse. You’d tell me if it was dangerous, right?”

“I would tell my darling lil’ sister everything. You know that. And…” he hesitated, eyes still lost in the distance, “I thought it would be, perhaps. But now… I’m… not so sure.”

A few seconds of silence. “I trust you, you asshole. Even when you wake me up at five in the morning just to order me not to come to the gym I work at. You ass. I expect you to tell me everything as soon as possible.”

“You can count on it. Thank you, Fareeha. Sorry for waking you up.”

First call done, he waited a few seconds, fingers brushing against the side of his phone, then started his second call.

This time, the answer was instantaneous.

“Masked Vigilante?” Winston’s voice sounded weary, and tense. “Why… why are you calling me?”

Jesse took a deep breath.

“I heard what happened.”

Winston understood instantly. “Is Ge… Is Green sentai with you?”

“Yeah, he’s sleeping now. He went through one hell of a bad night, I’d say.” Jesse hesitated. “We’ll have to find a place to meet tomorrow, after they’ve rested.”

And again, Winston understood perfectly. “ _Jesse_ –”

“Look.” Jesse interrupted him, ignoring the name slip. “They say they have proof. Hurts no one to listen to them, right? Genji… Genji said he saved his life.”

If Winston was startled by Jesse’s use of Genji’s first name, he did not show it, but he did growl, quietly, at what Jesse was asking him to do. “Jesse, you cannot possibly believe whatever Genji told you…”

“Whatever they told me is more believable than the idea that Genji could let some… monster trick him. I know he’s… the rushing ahead sort of person, but he’s also… a good guy, okay? He worried you guys enough already. He knows what he’s doing.”

“So you’re going to side with him?”

“I have… I have my reasons, Winston.” Jesse thought back at the soft, shaky voice of Genji as he promised Zenyatta he would be at his side. He thought back at how that monster had helped Genji through his panic attack, talking about his past. “It’s difficult to believe, but… I think there might be something to his story.”

There was a long, painful silence from the other side of the phone.

“Jesse, what would you want me to do? Just… wait around, doing nothing, while Genji could potentially be in danger? And you, as well? Try to understand me.”

His tone conveyed Winston’s thoughts on the matter, upset because he knew he would not get much out of Jesse, and his phone was untraceable, unlike Genji’s –and Genji had left his own at home, and unless using his suit, they would not know where to find him.

Jesse thought about Genji and the Cultist, alone in the staff room, resting, and almost snorted, though he restrained it at the last second.

“That’s not what I’m saying. But.” Jesse hummed quietly. “He said…” he carefully avoided using Zenyatta’s name, still uncertain whether to use it or not, “listen. Tell Athena that there is a way to at least look up part of the story. There is another one of the Cultist’s orbs somewhere in the city –in a park in the south-west area, probably– next to another one of those… black spheres she saw. He said he countered its effect by using his orb to stall it, and then left it behind to chase a second one. You can look for that one.”

“… huh,” Winston sounded perplexed. “Why would he know how to stop them?”

“That’s for him to tell you tomorrow. Just in case, you can have a look instead of spending the night worrying. Besides, I tell you –they’re both sleeping now. Just… trust him, alright? And me, also. But trust Genji to know what he’s doing.”

“I trust him. We just… worry.” Sounding defeated, Winston exhaled loudly. “Alright, alright. I’ll send Hana over there and contact the mentors. Just… just in case.”

“Don’t hound them. Just don’t. If you plan to stage a rescue, you’ll only make it worse. Just… wait until tomorrow, alright? I know how it looks on your side, but if anything, Genji has his dragon, and me. He’s not alone.”

Again, a long pause. “Yes. There isn’t much else we can do right now so… uh. Jesse. Please. Be safe. Both of you.”

***

Hana observed Winston pace across the room, biting down on her lower lip.

She knew he’d received a call, because then he’d dispatched Angela right after, sending her off to check on something –he had made sure to mention she would not have to get close, just get in the general area from above and then confirm something for him.

Hana was left alone with Winston and Athena, though the AI was still running diagnostics on herself, since apparently some nanites had managed to remain aggressively attached to the shell of her drone, which was now safely quarantined together with the Cultist’s orb.

Restless, Hana tried to fiddle with her phone, but she could not keep focused on it.

She hated waiting, even when she was so tired she could just fall asleep, but with Angela gone and Winston pacing and Genji who knew where, there was no one left for her to talk with. She hated this situation, and hated even more that she’d let Genji go without following him.

Genji was her friend, her teammate. She liked him, and when he’d been hurt, Hana had promised herself she would never let that happen ever again, and she knew that Winston and the others felt the same, and yet…

And yet, she had not seen this coming at all.

Now Genji was gone somewhere, and though Winston had tried to reassure her, telling her the Masked Vigilante was with him, Hana still felt useless, and angry, and frustrated.

She rubbed her face with her hands, nervous, and watched as Winston continued to pace around, unable to stay still.

“Winston,” she called out, trying not to sound whiny, “you need to rest.”

“I will be alright, I don’t… I don’t need all that much sleep, after all. But uh, Hana, you should… try to rest, it’s not good for you if you stay up.”

“I would be still awake if I was playing. This is worse, because I have nothing to do except worry. I hate this, Winston. I hate that I let him go away without me. I should have followed and–”

“And what, Hana?” Winston tried to sound reasonable, but it was hard when he couldn’t even stand still. “He’s a bit… stubborn.”

“We all are. I should have taken him seriously before, when he continued to say he wanted to listen to what the Cultist had to say… maybe if we’d gone in as a team instead of trying to keep him safe, maybe…” Hana felt her cheeks flush with a mix of anger and helplessness. “I just wanted to do my best. I didn’t want to push Genji away, Winston.”

At once understanding, Winston moved to her side, and ever so gently, he dragged her into his arms for a hug. She buried her face in his chest, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths until she felt less likely to cry, though just as angry as before.

Angry at herself, at Genji, at Masked Vigilante too, because he was just an addition to their team, and now he was the one who was at Genji’s side instead of them.

“Do you really think that monster really has something good in him?” she asked afterwards, fingers clenched tightly. “I trust Genji, but I don’t trust…”

“I really don’t know. I want to believe the best of people, though Genji has me beat at that, but… I… Hana, I just don’t know.” Winston let her go, sitting next to her on the floor, and Hana slumped against the wall and slid down, so tiny in comparison to his huge body. “It’s… difficult to believe it when the Cultist feels just like any other monster, so I don’t understand what Genji sees in him. Asking us to believe without anything to offer as proof is… worse, and I don’t understand how they might convince us tomorrow, but Je– Masked Vigilante says they want to meet us on their terms.”

“You don’t think Genji is going to fight with us, don’t you?” Hana hated the way her voice trembled, but she couldn’t hide her fears.

A long silence, as Winston seemed to ponder on her words. “No. Even if I don’t believe what they might say, I… I find it difficult that the Cultist could face the sentai rangers and expect to win, if he wanted us gone. If they are coming alone –just the three of them… what can we do if not wait and see?”

“We have no other choice. I want to trust Genji, Winston. Angela hates monsters more than I do, and she said she would listen, too. Because… I never saw Genji this distraught before. He didn’t want to fight. He just wanted us to stop and listen.”

“Hmmm. We’ll just have to do that.”

Hana stifled a small gasp when her phone vibrated on her hands, but the screen call was not Genji like she’d hoped –it was Lucio.

She fumbled with the phone. “Lucio?”

“Hey, what’s up bunny? Saw you left me some calls and found it weird. Concert’s ended just now–” some shuffling, then Lucio’s voice sounded closer, less confused. “Sorry, it’s still full of people. Next time I’d love to have you there with me, we could do a duet!”

Despite everything, Hana found herself giggling, Lucio’s voice doing wonders to calm her nerves. “Yeah, next time I’d love to come.”

“So what’s up? What’s the hurry? It’s kind of late, is it because of your stream or–”

As Hana explained to Lucio what had happened, she felt Winston move away from her side, leaving her some privacy and moving away, most likely to call Angela and make sure she was alright.

Only a few hours left until Genji returned, and Hana knew none of them would get any sleep, but the sooner they could see him again, the sooner they could fix everything and have him back.

Even if that meant listening to that monster to make sure Genji was alright.


	13. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the continued interest in this fic! Hang in there for more pining, comfort, angsty plot and more ;) (also longer chapter)

**Chapter 12**

Jesse woke up in the late morning, feeling groggy and uncomfortable.

At first he did not understand why until he looked above and instead of his familiar ceiling, he saw a plain white one, and then the memories of the previous night filtered back to his senses, and he groaned.

Ah, right.

“Good morning.”

Jesse wiped the drool off his chin and looked to the side. Genji was sprawled on the other couch, looking a little tired and a little off, but overall in one piece, and that was all that mattered.

“Mornin’ to you as well, Genji,” Jesse grunted, clearing his throat and scratching his chest. He was grateful he had his pyjamas on, but sleeping on an armchair was uncomfortable. “What… what’s the time?”

“Half past eleven. I thought it better to wake you up since you said this place would be available only until noon.”

“Oh shit– thanks man, would’a slept longer otherwise.” Jesse stood up and stretched, his back and neck popping and snapping as he did so. “What d’you have there?”

Genji’s lips tilted up in a smirk and he offered Jesse a tall cup filled with coffee. “Got it from the other room. There’s a dispenser.”

“Oh, bless your soul– wait, is there sugar in this? I ain’t a fan of bitter shit, more so in the mornings.”

“Yeah, yeah, I remember. There’s some cream over there also–” Genji snorted when Jesse downed the whole cup in a few long sips, unmindful of the heat. “Never mind.”

“Alright, that’s better.” Clicking his tongue, Jesse looked around. “Now, where’s… your friend?”

“Ah.” Genji’s lips lost the amused tilt, and he looked upset for a moment, and Jesse felt a chill run down his back, his mind already running a mile ahead, thinking about all the possible implications of that look. Did the monster leave, did he do something, did– “We thought it prudent to have him out of the room when you woke up. The… the bad feeling… it’s back. It seems its disappearance was merely a side effect of him touching the Iris.”

Trying to mask both his relief and the moment of instant suspicion, Jesse latched on the last part. “What’s that thing again?”

“Oh. I asked, actually. It’s… a bit complicated? Zenyatta says it’s like… the energy that is within all things, and the spiritual being the Shambali believe into. Or something. I don’t really remember all the jargon, though it felt pretty real when he used it yesterday.”

Jesse looked sceptic about it, but he had never really given much of a thought to the Shambali and their beliefs, and had always considered it just a spiritual thing. If it turned out to be magic, the same kind as Genji’s dragon, then things would make… some degree of sense. “So… you thought I would not be as keen to help you two if he was there when I woke up? Smart.”

“Yeah. I… it’s difficult for me as well, but I know the truth, so it’s not as strong… but I’ve always had a resistance to that feeling, and now it’s somewhat easier. For you though… I didn’t want to risk it. He is not able to touch the Iris to the extent he did yesterday that often, and the drawback is that he requires rest to recover. He can still touch it –he can use it on his orbs, and it offers a little bit of… relief? Maybe? So if it’s alright with you, he wants to keep one with you while you stay with us.”

Jesse blinked, a little confused, but not seeing anything wrong with it, he nodded. “Alright. Shoot that thing at me –figuratively, Genji. _Figuratively_.”

Genji snickered and moved to the door, peeking from it. “Alright, Zenyatta! Send one in!”

Though he had expected it, Jesse was still surprised to see one of the Cultist’s orbs float past the door and towards him, though this time it was glowing a soft, pleasant gold that made it harder for him to be creeped out by the eyes on it.

The moment it got close enough to him, Jesse felt warm –inside his chest, not a physical warmth– and it soothed an ache in him he had not known was there. In a way, it was far more invigorating than the coffee he’d just gulped down, making him a little more awake, like he’d just tapped into some untouched source of energy.

“Well, I’ll be damned.”

“Nice, huh?”

“Don’t sound so proud of yourself, Genji. We’ve still got a lot to do today.”

When Zenyatta entered the staff room, Jesse was prepared. It was true, this time –he felt the same disgust and distaste at seeing Zenyatta’s monstrous appearance as he did in the past, but the warmth coming from the orb at his side made it somehow less heavy on him, and it allowed him to control himself and not lash out.

“Yeah, it helps. A bit.” He shivered, still not quite able to properly look at Zenyatta.

“I would like… to thank you. For your cooperation.” Zenyatta’s voice was hesitant as he spoke directly to him for the first time, and Jesse decided to consider it a win when he did not flinch. “I know it is quite difficult for you, so I am truly grateful.”

Jesse’s mind flashed back to the night before, and he forced himself to look directly at Zenyatta, fighting his own reactions, and nodded to him.

“Think nothing of it. It’s still… difficult, but we’ll do our best. So uh…” He scratched his beard, uncomfortable with having to point it out, “We ought to talk a bit. I spoke with your friends before crashing,” Genji tensed up, and Jesse noticed the orb placed above his shoulder shifted closer to him as well, as if to share the golden light with both. “Thought we could meet up somewhere that’s alright with you both. They, uh. Winston promised he wouldn’t overreact. Sort of.”

Genji raised his eyebrows, obviously not believing him, but then he let out a soft sigh.

“I don’t want to do this without them. They’re my partners. My friends. So… I’ll just have to convince them.”

“What… hum. What kind of proof have you got, Zenyatta?” aware of how uncomfortable he sounded, Jesse took a deep breath, and felt a trickle of warmth help him steady himself. “Other than your word, that is.”

“As I explained yesterday, there is a black orb that I’m guarding, though I am quite sure, Masked Vigilante, that you have already alerted the other sentai about it.” Jesse swallowed, wondering how obvious seemed for Zenyatta. “But that is not the only thing.” He seemed to hesitate, the hands he kept in front of him clenching around each other. “And I have… visual proof of the nanomachines turning someone into a monster.”

Both Jesse and Genji startled at that, eyes wide. “Wha–”

“ _How_?”

“It happened before I found Genji facing his own swarm of nanites. Unfortunately I was not close enough to be able to help.” Zenyatta’s voice crackled, and it took a few seconds for Jesse to understand the weird inflection. Guilt. “I could not… I could do nothing.”

“That would be…” Jesse looked down, eyes wide. If he truly had proof, the sentai would believe him. Jesse himself would drop his last reservations. It was…

“It was not your fault, if you could not help that one. You can’t help everyone.” Genji stepped forwards, so close to Zenyatta that he looked up sharply, startled by the vehemence in his voice. Even Jesse looked at him, surprised. “You are just one person… omnic, but you helped _me_. When we convince my friends, we’ll be able to help many others, I promise.”

Zenyatta stared at him, forehead array blinking, then he hummed, shoulders relaxing. “Yes.” It was obvious to Jesse though that Zenyatta was not fully convinced, but this display of… guilt, in a way no one could fake, was just one more tiny detail that convinced Jesse he had picked the right side.

“I’m glad,” he said, and they both turned to look at him. “I’m sorry this happened to you, and to… someone else, and others. But with proof, we can make sure it won’t happen anymore. Or well. We can try?”

Genji snorted. “Of course. I don’t know how, but we’ll have to find a way.”

“This is also why meeting the rest of the sentai is important for me,” Zenyatta interjected, voice steady. “I am offering myself to them.”

This startled both Genji and Jesse, who snapped their heads towards him. “Huh?”

“I will happily allow your team to run as many experiments as they wish on me,” Zenyatta sounded placid as he said this, and Genji jolted in shock, opening his mouth to speak– “but of course, first they will have to accept the truth of my words. And if they still need proof of my identity even after that… all I ask is that I am allowed to make one call in front of them.”

Genji still looked troubled, his focus on Zenyatta offering himself for experiments, but Jesse chose to ignore that part, for the moment. “Who is it you want to call?”

“The Shambali, of course. My brother will be sure to confirm my identity.”

***

The atmosphere was tense.

Zenyatta looked completely calm, on the outside –hands in front of him in what appeared to be a submissive, placid pose, head held high, what was left of his orbs floating gently around him– but inside, he was absolutely tense.

There was something incredibly humbling in being surrounded by an entire division of heroes, even more so when they were still feeling the effects of his monstrous aura, and despite having proof of his word, and having accepted it, they still were wary of him.

He knew it would be difficult, even now –but at least, they had listened.

Still, he was still one surrounded by many, and it left him tense.

The only one truly on his side was Genji, who had enough of a hold on his friends that it would help –and Zenyatta was truly grateful for that support. It was the only reason he was able to look so calm, despite everything.

Pink sentai, White sentai, Blue sentai and that impressive, giant gorilla were all there –Genji had introduced him as Winston earlier–but they were not the only ones. Genji and Jesse were both present, donning their costumes, and next to them were three more heroes –two sentai and one that did not belong to their ranks.

Zenyatta had never seen those two rangers before, but Genji, with tension in his voice and in his shoulders, had introduced them as Red and Silver, retired but still available as mentors, and neck-deep in paperwork.

The sentai ranger force had been mainly created to counter attack the monsters, and that had happened around three years before, but Genji had explained that the new recruits had been in on the action only for the past year. Before that, there had been an older selection of heroes that had been recruited from elsewhere, and Red and Silver were part of that group.

There had been others, but they were not present.

The last hero was Tracer, who had been considered for the position of sentai ranger but in the end had decided to work on her own, preferring to do her own thing at her own pace –which was a fast one, considering her powers had to do with accelerating time.

“I’m grateful Angela did not call Pharah too,” Zenyatta heard Genji murmur to Jesse, who had nodded in complete understanding.

Zenyatta had no idea who Pharah was, but it was not quite as important while standing in front of what felt like a martial court.

The sentai had followed Jesse’s suggestion and found his mala and the deactivated orb, quarantining both in case it returned to full functionality, and due to the volatile state of the nanomachines, they would not be able to work on those, but thanks to Zenyatta’s memory banks, the gruesome transformation of the omnic into an aquatic monster had been enough to convince them, even though Zenyatta felt bad about making a spectacle out of it.

Yet, he hoped the omnic would forgive him, one day.

The sentai had apparently decided to look into what they’d heard from Genji earlier on as well; all they had was a name –Zenyatta’s, as Genji had used it in front of them– but apparently a google research on it had been fruitless.

The only things that came up after a few false starts were an ancient rock band from the last decades of the 1900s and a deceased racing horse from around the same period or a little later, Zenyatta was not quite sure about the details, but the idea of them researching his name made him smile.

Mondatta had always agreed with Zenyatta’s desire to not be in the spotlights, and with his protective attitude, had helped Zenyatta keep out of the public eye –it would be difficult for the sentai to find much on him, with just a few casual searches and not even his full name.

Even if the sentai had not believed his story with the visual proof of what nanomachines could do, Zenyatta had thought they would still be mollified with his offer to allow them to experiment on him and before he had shown them his recording, it was what had stayed their hand –that and their desire to listen to Genji, who had been less than enthused with Zenyatta’s proposal to become a lab rat. Yet, even he had to admit that learning from Zenyatta’s body would help their research a long way.

So even if the sentai ended up not believing him, they would still have a willing lab rat. Thankfully, they had believed him with his proof, though they still demanded info on his identity, and that was why he was calling the Shambali now, with the sentai around him but just out of sight as he stood in front of a big screen, composing the familiar number of Mondatta’s phone.

Mondatta lived in Nepal at the Shambali monastery, and considering the time zones, it was late evening over there, so he hoped he would be…

The call connected, and Mondatta’s face flickered on the holo-screen.

Distantly, Zenyatta heard a few muffled gasps –Mondatta was quite a public figure, unlike Zenyatta himself, who preferred to keep in the shadows, and he was renown and respected across the globe– but he had no time to focus on them, because the instant Mondatta realised who was calling, his forehead array flickered and he hummed, deep and low in his synth.

“ _Tekhartha Zenyatta_.” The anger in his voice startled Zenyatta enough that he jumped a little, shoulders hitching in surprise. “You haven’t called in _two. Weeks_.”

“Mondatta, I’m–”

“Do you realise how worried it leaves me, when I have no way of calling you back?” the tone shifted from anger to pain, and Zenyatta flinched, guilt washing over him. “Two weeks, my light. In your situation, constantly in danger, attempting to help whoever you happen to find… I understand you have to be wary, but you promised me, Zenyatta. You promised to call every week, and I had to find out how you were from those you sent to us instead.”

Trying not to squirm under Mondatta’s stern reprimand, Zenyatta cleared his voice box, uncomfortably aware of the shocked, startled gazes of the heroes just out of sight.

“Brother, I… I’m sorry. I know I should have called you but… things have been… hectic.” He hesitated, the remaining mala around his neck shifting and rolling. “But I am glad to hear the ones I sent your way arrived without a problem.”

Mondatta took an artificial breath, shoulders slumping slightly. He knew Zenyatta was redirecting his attention elsewhere, but he was truly grateful to hear from him, so he decided to let the matter go. For now. “They did, or at least, three of them did so far. They found their way to the Shambali temple north of your city, as per instructions, and are now under our protection.”

Zenyatta’s forehead array burned brightly in a relieved smile.

“That is a relief.” Then he straightened his back. “Brother, there is something else though… I did not call simply to inquire about them. I… have news.”

Mondatta shifted a little, forehead array dimming, servos tensing. “What happened, Zenyatta?”

“I made the sentai listen to me.”

And as Mondatta let out a startled gasp, Zenyatta motioned to the side with his hand, and his orbs shifted the projector of the holographic screen until it tilted to show Mondatta the people surrounding Zenyatta from every side.

For a long, painful moment, there was utter silence in the room, then Mondatta hummed quietly. His tone when he spoke next was steely. “Is there a particular reason why this setup appears to be much like a martial court, sentai rangers?” a beat “and assorted heroes.” Jesse flinched at that.

Winston let out a small, rumbling sound deep in his throat –the closest thing to a whimper– then he visibly swallowed. “Tekhartha Mondatta, leader and founder of the, uh, the Shambali.”

“That I am, yes. And you are… the sentai rangers I heard so much about from my brother, yes?” he sounded less than impressed.

“Uh, yes. Yes. It is… it is a honour to, uh, see you. Really. You are… uh…” Winston grappled with words, taken aback and unable to speak.

Fortunately for him, there was someone else who had no trouble speaking up.

“It’s an honour to meet you sir! You’ve always been such an inspiration to me!” Tracer took a few steps ahead from the side lines, and Mondatta’s line of sight shifted to look at her. “Though uh…” she hesitated, flinched when she realised every eye was on her, and backtracked. “It’s… not really a nice circumstance to meet you like this, sir. But! Big fan! Really! Me ‘n me girlfriend have been at some of your speeches in King’s Row!”

Mondatta’s shoulders twitched, and Zenyatta realised he was restraining a chuckle. “Thank you, miss…?”

“Tracer! Name’s Tracer!”

Red and Silver sentai exchanged a glance, then Red sentai walked to Winston’s side, patting him on the shoulder, and Winston slumped over a bit, nodding.

“I’m sorry for the… uh, the bother, but your… brother, yes, he’s been considered a public enemy for the past… months and…” Mondatta did not have an expression, but there was something about the way he tilted his head just so, forehead array dimming slightly, that spoke of his disapproval without the need for a face.

With a huff that managed to convey how the entire situation was grating to his nerves, Silver sentai stepped forwards, the pace of someone weary and annoyed with the world. “Tekhartha Mondatta. From the sentai ranger corps, I would like to issue a formal apology, but we will not take responsibility for our lack of belief in…” a quick glance at Zenyatta, “the one you call Zenyatta. He has the appearance of a monster, one of the many our organization was created to fight. The feeling we get when we look at him is also the same, bringing us to distrust him. When one of our own started to speak in his defense, at first we thought he had been tricked. When further proof of his change was brought forth, we finally realised we were wrong, but I do not believe we should be held responsible for keeping a wary attitude unless proven otherwise.”

Mondatta remained quiet, staring into the unfamiliar helmet of Silver sentai, who looked back at him just as quietly, neither moving or backing down.

Finally, Mondatta hummed. “I do understand more than you believe, sentai ranger. The Shambali are not immune to that negative bundle of emotional reaction that monsters inspire in us. It is something both humans and omnics share, in that regard.”

Silver sentai nodded, a sharp, curt motion of his head.

“I am still grateful you ended up believing one of your own and accepting the possibility that there was something more behind this –and believe me, I am truly grateful. He has tried to make contact with you sentai for the past six months, and so far it did not go as he wished. I was… worried that it would end in a worse disagreement.”

Zenyatta fidgeted a little more, aware of Mondatta’s pain.

Their resources were mostly used to help those in need, and because of this, Zenyatta had been unable to reunite with his brother for over a year. He could have tried to find his way to one of the Shambali temples, of course, and they might manage to smuggle him on a plane when possible, but even the reach of the Shambali was limited, and not infallible.

If he returned to the monastery, he would not be able to continue his search for a cure, and the many humans and omnics who were targeted by the nanomachines would not find aid anywhere else.

Zenyatta was the only one who could recognise them and believe them right away because of his skills at manipulating Discord –something very few of the Shambali shared.

Real monsters had no Discord within them, nor Harmony. They simply existed, almost impenetrable to him… but those who were turned, he could identify.

Zenyatta had made his decision, and he’d never looked back, even when his faith had wavered under distress. Even when he had known that this decision harmed Mondatta too, though he’d always supported him nonetheless.

“I am truly sorry, brother,” he murmured, lowering his head.

Mondatta turned to look at him, forehead array burning brightly again. “Don’t be, my light. You might walk a path too far away for me to share with you, but we are still united in the Iris. And if this shift means now you will not be alone anymore…”

“He won’t!” Unable to restrain himself, Genji stepped forwards, shoulders squared, and to his defense he did not flinch when Mondatta turned to look at him. “Zenyatta saved my life, yesterday. The nanomachines that turned him into what he is now attempted to do the same to me, and he surged up and fought them and saved my life. I promised him –and I don’t go back on my promise. He’s not alone anymore. I’m with him.”

Mondatta tilted his head to the side, a motion that meant he was amused, and regarded Genji for a moment before he nodded, satisfied. “And for this, I am grateful, Green sentai. Zenyatta does speak rather highly of you–”

“Brother!” Zenyatta’s synth glitched for a moment, surprised and embarrassed by Mondatta’s casual words, further flustered when Mondatta chuckled at him.

Yet, Zenyatta could not help but smile through his forehead array, pleased that this way, he managed to reassure his brother that things had finally changed for the better.

He glanced over to Genji, finding him frozen in place, and attributed that to the imposing confrontation with Mondatta, so to make sure he would not get addressed any further, he stepped forwards, facing the sentai and his brother at the same time.

“It is true that I have finally found allies to aid me on my quest to find… a cure,” he looked down at his hands, “and that it will not be easy, with having to force them to work by my side, with my aura keeping them away. But…” he hesitated, careful to consider his own strength. “I will not be able to do this for long, or that often, because I am still rather weary from my fight yesterday, so forgive me.”

He had waited until all the sentai were there, so that they would see –and understand this was not the trick of a monster– and with Mondatta also watching, Zenyatta stretched his senses inwardly, and opened himself to the touch of the Iris.

It was easy, just like before.

It answered instantly, warmth that had eluded him for a year now surging from within his soul, and he felt his body raise in the air, surrounded by golden light as six arms materialized around his body, shifting into tentacles as they formed behind him.

Zenyatta found himself humming deeply in his synth, a pronounced Om that vibrated through his chassis and expanded outside of him like a ripple in the air.

For this moment nothing else mattered except this touch, but Zenyatta found himself looking at Genji’s masked face among the rest, finding him still frozen at his side, staring up at him.

A part of Zenyatta wondered what he was thinking.

He also wondered if he knew how grateful Zenyatta was, for without the help of his dragon Zenyatta might never have found the way to the Iris again.

He let go of the Iris sooner than he would have liked to, his body trembling slightly, straining to hold onto it for longer than a couple seconds, and when it vanished, it left behind an impression of warmth deep inside his chassis, thrumming like a human heartbeat before that, too, dimmed and vanished.

“Oh, Zenyatta…” Mondatta’s voice was full of warmth and joy, making his synth glitch. “You found your way to the Iris once again…”

Zenyatta chuckled, relieved and happy and safe in the afterglow of having transcended.

“No matter how many times I see it, it’s… really something else. It is… impressive,” Genji murmured to him, sounding almost embarrassed. “I’m also sorry it took so long to convince the others, but… Zenyatta, I swear. I will not let anything happen to you now. We’ll find a way to turn you back as you once were.”

Zenyatta’s fans kicked up in speed, stuttering for a moment at the heartfelt promise. “Thank you, Green sentai. Having you at my side… it does feel like the worst is truly behind me.”

And though neither could smile in a way that was visible to each other, they both did –Genji underneath his helmet, and Zenyatta with his forehead array.

***

“Genji, he cannot possibly stay at the base!”

“Why not? He has nowhere else to go! And besides, we did sort of antagonise him for months… just a bit. If he stays here, he will be _safe_.”

“Genji, just because you recklessly told him your secret identity does not mean he has been authorized to stay here,” Angela sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “I understand you feel responsible, and he did save your life, so I get that, but… there’s more to this than your feelings on the matter.”

“Is it because of his appearance?”

Startled by the sharp tone, Angela bit down what she wanted to say, and shook her head. “Of course it is not. What happened to him was horrible, and Ana and I have already started researching on the matter together with Winston. We wish to help him, and we cannot keep relying on the orbs he lets us borrow to tone down the emotional distress he causes us, or demand him to dry his reserves to do… that impressive display he showed us earlier. And… that is part of the reason he should not stay here.”

“So it _is_ because of his appearance!”

“Genji! Do you not listen to me? It is because we are supposed to keep going in and out of the base, and having him here… it puts stress on us. I know you have a hard time being around him as well, but he did say you had a resistance to it. We do not. It is… stressful, and not a good environment to rest between our duties as sentai and our normal life. It keeps us on our toes, and it will reflect on our performance.”

Her vehemence startled Genji just as much as his sharp tone had startled Angela, and the two took a few moments to breathe and try to calm down.

Genji hated fighting with her –she was one of his best friends, but they always seemed to disagree on many things.

“I get that, okay?” he rubbed his face with his hands, needing something to do. “But what do you want him to do? Go back to the sewers? Because that’s where he lived before. For over five months, while we chased him down. We had this place to go back to, and you had Fareeha’s house too. He had nowhere, and no one.”

“Genji… I know it’s horrible, but… if he stays here, he would also not feel at home.” There was a note of sadness in her tone, and Genji paused to look at her. She was just as tired as she always was, but there was tension in her shoulders that he had not noticed. “At best, he’d have to live here knowing none of us can stand being at his side, and at worst… he will be confined to a room or an area of the base because he does not wish to do us harm. Is that fair?”

And Genji had to admit that… it was true.

After the call to the leader of the Shambali, which reassured the other heroes that Zenyatta was exactly who he said he was, Zenyatta had been asked to stay at the base for the night, so that he could confer with the sentai and Winston over how to proceed.

The power of the Iris allowed the sentai to stay by his side, but when that disappeared, none of the sentai would be able to stay in the same room as him unless he offered them some of his Harmony orbs. They all knew the truth, but that did not make the effects of his aura less vehement on them.

Even Genji, who actively fought against the aura, still felt its effects, and Zenyatta had picked on it instantly, choosing to remain as far from them as possible.

If he ended up staying at the base, it was possible the situation would only get worse, but the idea of sending him away made anger pool inside Genji’s guts.

He hated the idea that Zenyatta had to be alone again. After everything he’d gone through, after saving Genji’s life, after facing all the sentai so they could listen…

“It’s not fair he has to be alone again. It’s just… it’s not fair!”

Angela rubbed her face. She had no answer, and she felt Genji’s anguish on her own skin.

Zenyatta… she could not even begin to understand the kind of horrifying life he’d lived for so long, isolated and pushed away by everybody, and the idea that she could look at herself and see a monster instead of her own body… it scared her.

Angela knew exactly what monsters could do.

“Guys? Can I… can I speak with you for a moment?”

Both Genji and Angela looked to the side. They had been having a discussion in the middle of the common room, and for a moment Angela felt a flicker of embarrassment and her cheeks dusted red at the idea that Zenyatta might have been around to hear them discussing about him.

Thankfully, there were only Winston and the two mentors of the current sentai force, Red and Silver… though neither was in their ranger setups now, their faces recognizable as Ana Amari and Jack Morrison.

“It’s good to see you, Jack,” Genji lifted one hand in a greeting, only to wince when Jack stomped towards him, expression thunderous.

“How do you always end up getting your ass in danger, Shimada?” Jack stopped inches from him, but Genji saw the furrowed lines on his face, wrinkles of age and worry, and he exhaled loudly. “I didn’t mentor you only to see you get hurt over and over again!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I really am, it’s just…” Genji bit down on his excuses and deflated. “That happened,” he ended up saying, and it sounded weak to his own ears. “But being sentai is dangerous. It could have happened to anyone.”

The thought of Hana, or Jesse, or Lucio ever facing the kind of pain he’d felt made his heart ache in worry, but at the same time, he thought about them befriending Zenyatta, instead of him, and Genji felt a lick of annoyance at the thought.

“Just… try to not get yourself killed, alright? Would be a waste.”

Genji flashed him a smile, knowing that despite his gruff words, Jack only wished him to be safe.

“Will do my best, I promise.”

Ana snorted from where she was standing at Angela’s side. “Children, the lot of them. I admire your patience, Angela.”

“Sometimes I wonder, myself,” Angela answered, but there was a small smile on her lips.

Winston cleared his throat, a bit awkwardly, and the four turned to look at him at once.

“We have… come to a decision regarding uh, Zenyatta.”

That made Genji stand up straighter.

“We… honestly don’t feel comfortable leaving him by himself, after everything that happened, but… there’s the matter of his presence here causing discomfort that he cannot prevent. Jack and Ana offered to bring him with them to the main headquarters, where there might be others who can have a better chance at figuring things out than we can–”

“You can’t!” Genji stepped forwards, hands clenched into fists. “He’d just be shoved somewhere else as if he’s unwanted! After everything that happened, we can’t do that, we–”

“–and then we ended up agreeing that it would not be our best bet,” Winston continued, as if Genji had not interrupted him. “It’s not just because of that, either. It’s… something he said, about… it appears that there’s something larger than we thought behind his change. The nanomachines… when Athena analysed the orb, we found out that most of the components aside for the monster DNA in it belonged to this world. The orb itself as well, though we had no way of knowing that the Cultist was… well. Not a real monster.”

Genji and Angela exchanged a puzzled look.

“What does that mean?” but as he asked this, Genji’s mind made the connection. “It’s… someone from this world?! Someone… sent the nanomachines to just… turn people into monsters?!”

“Well, we don’t… really know if it’s on purpose, or… well. If they even know this is what they were doing, but… that is a possibility we’re not willing to dismiss, yes.”

Ana crossed her arms in front of her chest. “What Winston means is that we face the chance of a complot, and it is bigger than just your friend Zenyatta and the other countless victims. We cannot trust the information to leave the city, or the sentai. We cannot tell anyone who was not present yesterday about this… well, aside for Fareeha, Angela.” Angela suddenly looked far less tense. “Because of this, Zenyatta needs to stay here.”

“He can work with us, actually,” Jack added, tone admitting no objection. “His abilities mean we will be able to know whether a monster is dangerous or is an unfortunate victim, as he can recognize them. It is why he has grown that impressive fame of his, about gathering an army. We do not want to end up harming innocents because we cannot distinguish one of those from a real monster. We have the proper resources to aid the other victims to reach the Shambali, as well.”

“I… I understand,” Angela sounded less than enthused, but she knew they were right.

“He has also offered to try and help us learn how to be more resistant to the distress caused to us by monsters. The Shambali train their minds, and it might not be as easy without a natural resistance, but it could be helpful in the long run,” Ana added, thoughtfully. “We cannot truly stay long –there’s a lot of things we need to investigate on the side, and we have to look into the symbol Zenyatta saw, but we’ll try to come back as soon as possible.”

“Alright.” Genji felt a little reassured now that he’d been told Zenyatta would go nowhere, a pleasant satisfaction that curled inside his chest. “Have you heard from Gabriel though? He hasn’t called in weeks now.”

Jack’s frown deepened. “No. We have not.”

“… ah.” Genji bit down on his lower lip, somewhat worried even though he knew he shouldn’t be –Gabriel could take care of himself. “Call me if you hear from him, okay?”

Jack leaned forwards, his hand falling heavily on Genji’s shoulder, the contact almost startling. “Will do, kid. Now you might want to go see your friend. I know it’s not going to be easy here for the next few weeks, but out of all of us, you’re the one he trusts. Make sure he’s as comfortable as he can be.”

Genji waved one hand in the air, dismissive. “As if I didn’t plan to do that already, old man.”

 


	14. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Sentai have discovered there is more to the Cultist than meets the eye, and have thus gained an ally, but things are still far from being solved. It is only the start...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the reviews you've been leaving me, and for all the kindness you've been showing to this fic. I hope i can keep it up and make you happy!
> 
> on a side note, tumblr user candycornskull did art for chapter 11, which i linked back there, but here you have it [CLICK N GIVE IT LOVE](http://candycornskull.tumblr.com/post/171312201528/this-scene-was-just-so-overwhelmingy-emotional-i)

**Chapter 13**

The first morning lights had not yet appeared in the sky outside of the small window, but Zenyatta was already awake.

The room around him was dark, as he preferred to keep the lights off, illuminated only by the streetlights outside his window, and by the neon banner placed on the building in front of the sentai base, advertising some soft drink.

This early morning marked the third day since Zenyatta had moved in to stay with the sentai rangers, and he had yet to get used to the change of pace. Since he could not sleep much, he spent most of the night meditating to recharge, but his processors remained sluggish and reacted slowly, recalibrations sub-par from the usual.

At first, Zenyatta had thought the change to be positive. He had touched the Iris again, and Harmony had filled the holes within himself that had been so empty until then, but as he had come to realise quickly, it was a double-edged sword. He was used to sensing the Discord present in the souls of the many citizens around him, but now he could also feel their Harmony, and while the new onslaught was of positive emotions, offsetting the negativity of all the Discord, it was still taxing on his mind, the pressure of so much extra input leaving him jittery.

Unfortunately, living with the sentai made it… worse.

Their base was in the middle of the city, disguised in a trafficked area, and there were so many omnics and humans everywhere around him, and while before the sewers offered a bit of respite, now…

Now, he felt _more_ , and constantly, everything mixed together, strong and sharp, and most of Zenyatta’s focus and energies were devoted to try and stem this flood of emotions, meditating to learn to control their influx.

It was new, and he knew he would slowly reduce the weight until it did not bother him –he had done it once, when his senses had been less refined, so he knew the procedure– but for now, it was still an ongoing process. It left him tired and with his processors buzzing.

To add to this, there was another problem.

He could feel very clearly that he was not welcome at the sentai base.

He knew it was not something they could control, and that the sentai were trying very hard to overcome the negative reaction they had to his presence, but it was instinctive, and Zenyatta could feel it.

There were only five others at the base –Genji, three other sentai rangers and Winston, their appointed commander– but none of them were comfortable with him being around, and every time he left the room he had been offered he could see the way they tensed up, retreat from him, giving him a wide berth.

He felt like he was intruding in their personal space just by being there, but the two older sentai had been adamant in having him stay, and considering what they had shared with him, it was for the best, but…

It didn’t feel much like an improvement from before.

Though he was quite grateful for Genji’s continuous support, despite how he also had a hard time being around Zenyatta.

He’d been supportive, and present, fighting against the instinctive disgust so much Zenyatta was surprised about his resistance to it, and had asked him for help on how to fully overcome it.

And then, there was also…

A soft knock interrupted the flow of his thoughts, and Zenyatta hummed. “Please do come in,” he murmured.

The door opened, and though he did not turn around to look, Zenyatta felt a wave of familiar Discord. “Good morning, Genji.”

“Hey,” Genji’s voice was scratchy and throaty, and Zenyatta made sure to keep his optical receptors turned to the window still, not wishing to make Genji feel unwelcome or embarrassed. “I knew you’d be awake.”

“You had another nightmare.”

“… yes. I did.”

“You’ve had them every night since our fight against the nanomachines,” Zenyatta hummed quietly. “I am sorry, Genji. I was not quick enough to spare you even that.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Zenyatta. Nor mine, either, as you keep telling me.” Genji made a huffing, tired noise, and shuffled a bit until he had the door of the room closed, and then he slowly made his way to the bed, which Zenyatta never used. “I’m sorry though, I… I always come and impose on you every time, and it’s your right to just kick me out of the room and–”

“Genji. Breathe. You’re always welcome to come here whenever you need it, but…” Zenyatta did turn around, and met the ruffled, tired face of the person he was growing to consider almost a friend, forehead array flickering in sadness. “I do wonder if coming to seek me out when my appearance is part of the problem is truly going to help you in the long run.”

“You’re not part of the problem!” the vehemence in Genji’s voice was surprising, but no more than the sharp look he got, hands clenched hard on his knees as he sat cross-legged on the mattress. “It’s true that it… it used to unsettle me, but… it’s easier now, and… honestly, I think you’re the only one I could talk about… all of this. You understand. Hah, I feel stupid because here I am, talking your head off when I was saved and you…” Genji covered his face with both of his hands, voice muffled. “And you didn’t and I come here for help every time when you’re the one who has to live with it every day and–”

“Genji!” Zenyatta’s tone was sharp and steely, and it cut through what Genji had been about to say. “It is not something you should worry about. I…” he trailed off, contemplating what to say.

There was so much Zenyatta wished to tell him –how just having him around helped, how Genji kept being there, when no one else had, how he challenged his own negative reaction simply to be with Zenyatta every day, when the others tried but could barely make it through for a few minutes before having to go away, even with his mala sharing Harmony with them…

How Zenyatta had hoped for so long for some company, and to have it, to have Green sentai, Genji, be the one to stay… it was already so much.

How Zenyatta felt bad even then, because he knew he was selfish to wish for Genji to stay longer, and yet he could not make him leave…

“… you do more than you know,” he finally said, his tone wavering slightly. “What was your nightmare about, this time?”

Genji seemed taken aback by his words, a look on his face that Zenyatta could not quite decipher, but then his shoulders slumped just a little bit and he moved to press his back against the wall behind him, still comfortably curled up on the bed. With a sigh, he turned to look at the window, evidently embarrassed.

“It was… the nanomachines got to me, but this time you were there, but you couldn’t help. You were hurt and the nanites were holding you back.” Genji’s tone cracked there, hesitating. “And then I hurt you. I could not stop myself, and you couldn’t move and I–” he choked, swallowing, and refused to look at him, blinking a few times. “ I promised I would help you, but in the nightmare I just…”

“I am unhurt, Genji. The nightmare reflects your fear of going back on your word, but you didn’t.” Zenyatta hummed deep in his synth, soft and continuous, and Genji felt the vibrations even if they weren’t close, the sound soothing and grounding. “You are not going to harm me, nor would I ever believe you capable of it. Breathe, Genji, and focus on me, on your body, and on the now. Accept your fears but build on them the truth that they will not come to fruition.”

Genji’s eyes fluttered close, and Zenyatta guided him through a few breathing techniques even as he observed his profile, watching him slowly relax, back still pressed against the wall, hands abandoned on his thighs. There was a small smile on his lips, and Zenyatta felt his core give a tiny jolt at the sight.

They had truly changed since before, when all Genji had wished to do, as Green sentai, was to fight with Zenyatta and bring him down.

Now, he trusted him enough to talk with him about their shared experience, and to close his eyes and leave himself vulnerable, knowing Zenyatta had no ill intent towards him.

This closeness felt almost unreal, the trust between them grounding Zenyatta to the present, acutely aware of it.

Feeling flustered for no reason, Zenyatta hastily looked away and focused on keeping his humming and synth tone even as he continued to help Genji.

“Thank you,” Genji murmured at the end, sounding tired but relaxed. “But I really feel bad that I cannot do the same for you.”

“Genji, I do not require that kind of support from you. I told you, just being there–”

“Yeah, I know, but…” Genji interrupted him, rubbing his face again. “you deserve more than that. All I can do is just… do my best to overcome that bad feeling so you’ll feel happier being here.”

His words made Zenyatta pause. “What do you…”

“I know it’s hard for you to stay here. I see how you retreat from everybody because of how they… how _we_ react to your presence. It’s not fair. I wish I could just find a way to help you, but for now all I can do is become someone who will not be bothered by your aura. Until the time you’re back to being… yourself, I guess.” Genji blinked and stared at Zenyatta, who was frozen where he was sitting, his fans spinning just a little faster. He chose then to change the subject to something different. “What do you think you’re going to do, afterwards?”

For a few seconds, Zenyatta did not know what to say –his mind catching up on Genji’s words, on the fact that of course he’d noticed, and on how much he seemed to _care_ – and then he let out a soft, artificial sigh.

“I… I do not know. I have been away from the monastery for so long, and I miss it. I miss being there, being part of a whole… belonging.” Genji winced in understanding but nodded, conceding his point. “I left because it had become too restrictive for me, and I wished to learn more about the world. More about everything. Now… I feel like I need some peace. I just…” Zenyatta hesitated, hands clenching tightly around one another, “I’m just tired, Genji.”

Genji hesitated, staring at him, and Zenyatta felt the heavy weight of the stare and looked away.

He heard Genji shuffle on the bed, the soft sound of the footsteps moving closer, and when he turned around again, Genji slid in a crouch in front of him. As Zenyatta was sitting on a chair, they ended up somewhat eye to eye.

Zenyatta shifted a little, a small aborted motion, but Genji did not move, simply staring at him, a small frown on his face that was part annoyance and part fighting off Zenyatta’s bad aura.

“I only just now got to meet you,” Genji murmured, soft enough that Zenyatta’s auricular receptors strained a little, even in the silence of the room, “and I wish to know more about you. I know there’s just me, and I’m a single person, but I’m trying. I hope I can be of some company for you, until you can go back to your home.”

And then –and Zenyatta had half hoped, half dreaded he would do so– Genji reached out for him, both hands carefully wrapping around one of Zenyatta’s ones, holding it tightly.

Zenyatta’s optical receptors fluttered shut for a second, his servos aching and sensors suddenly overly sensitive for the casual contact, and he allowed himself to enjoy the freely-given touch, and the meaning behind it.

“Thank you,” he murmured back, just as softly. Then he repeated, as before “you do more than you think.”

Genji smiled, softly, the lightest tilt of his lips upwards, and it felt to Zenyatta’s senses more bitter than it should have been, almost melancholic, before Genji pulled away, leaving Zenyatta to miss even that tiny contact, but grateful all the same for it.

“I would like to try that meditation-focus thing again, if you don’t mind,” Genji said right afterwards, shuffling back, a little awkward, to sit on the bed. “I don’t quite get it yet, but I want to practice again.”

“Alright,” Zenyatta smiled with his forehead array. “I can certainly spare some more time for you. You have been quite a good student so far.”

Genji’s cheeks turned a little crimson. “I don’t think I want to be accepted in the Shambali, though.”

“That is alright. Meditation is for everybody, as long as they are willing.”

“That I am,” Genji pointed a thumb at his own chest, cheeky smile in place. “So let’s get down to it.”

***

“So, did you train a lot with the Shambali, since you were so good when we had to face one another?”

Zenyatta looked up.

At Genji’s request, he had conceded and left the room he’d been assigned to. Albeit hesitant to go anywhere, he could not find it in himself to refuse Genji and his earnest desire to see to Zenyatta’s comfort.

The common room was empty, at least, and Zenyatta had sent forwards an orb to make sure his presence would not disturb anymore, just in case.

Genji was slowly improving in his resistance to the aura, but he was nowhere near as good as the Shambali members were, while the other sentai had seemed interested but were unable to stay around enough for Zenyatta to try and help them, both because of their own sensitivity to him and to their duty as sentai.

In the end, common room or guest room meant nothing much to Zenyatta, as they were not doing anything different; Genji flicked on the television screen to play a game, and Zenyatta alternated between watching him play and idly flipping through one of the magazines piled on a nearby table.

It was sweet for Genji to want to get him out of the room, but it was still isolating, if no one but him was around.

“Somewhat,” he answered, surprised at the weird subject. “The Shambali believe in being able to protect those who need to be protected, and that means teaching everybody how to be able to do so. My abilities…” he pointed at the floating orbs around his frame “were honed against others of the Shambali who had picked up different skillsets. We do not like to fight, but we are not about to let others destroy and harm if we can do something to prevent it from happening.”

“So… those orbs… they are not normal among your friends?”

“My mala were given to me by my brother, to channel omnic energy and aid my meditation. They were not born to be used in combat, but… I learned how to channel the Iris through them, and as such, have grown to use them in ways they were not designed for.” There was a small smile in his voice as he remembered his brother’s baffled questioning. “They are not as sturdy as they seem, but I coat them with omnic energy when I use them as projectiles, so they do not get dented easily.”

“I see.” Genji watched the avatar on the screen die a messy death, and then closed down the game, turning to look at Zenyatta, curiosity written all over his face. “What about the bad feeling they can have? That… purple thing. And the golden one. Is that the Iris? It is different from the aura you have, but at first we thought they were the same thing.”

Zenyatta chuckled at Genji’s honest curiosity. “Yes, the Iris’ energy is channelled in two opposite forces, Harmony and Discord. When I got turned, I could not touch the Iris anymore, nor Harmony –all I had left was Discord. I was unbalanced, and confused. It is not good for your soul, to only focus on one half of the whole. True balance is required, and perhaps when I changed… I lost sight of it due to the pain and the nanomachines twisting so much of me.”

Genji nodded but pushed through, not wanting Zenyatta to focus on that. “Do you think you’d like to spar with me, maybe?”

“Oh, I would–” Zenyatta suddenly quieted down as the orb guarding the door pinged quietly as a warning, and one second later, Angela stepped into the common room. Her eyes glanced around, hesitating before focusing on Zenyatta, and he rose from where he was sitting. “Forgive me, I will leave,” he murmured, taking a step away from Genji.

Genji yelped. “No, you don’t have to–”

“No! Please. Don’t leave!” Angela’s voice was sharp, and when she realised it, she swallowed and breathed deeply. “You should not have to run away every time one of us happens to pass by,” she added, her body tense, the muscles of her face twitching.

“Yet, I do not wish to bring you harm with my presence, Miss Ziegler,” Zenyatta answered.

The other sentai had revealed their identities to him not long after their elders had decided he would stay, and though they had been good sports about it, Zenyatta still felt it was forced on them, yet addressing them as their sentai names sounded perhaps worse, as if he was denying the knowledge and the implicit trust they’d offered him, even when it had not been their choice.

“It does not matter. I…” Angela squared her jaw and looked right at Zenyatta’s face place. “Please, teach me how not to be bothered by it!”

This was the first time one of the sentai had actually asked him about it outright, and Zenyatta paused, feeling the waves of Discord knot inside her chest, so tightly he almost felt a shadow of her pain.

“Miss Ziegler…”

“Angela. My name is… Angela.”

“Angela… I do not think it would be the best course of action.”

That seemed to startle her out of her tense pose, because she took a step back, shock painted on her face. “Why… why not?”

“One must be willing to learn, in order to be taught, but your soul is too much in turmoil to learn this from me. Constant exposure to my aura would be detrimental for your health, as even a few minutes around me are… difficult for you to manage.” Zenyatta’s optical receptors moved to her trembling fists, to her shaking shoulders and the way she was biting down on her lower lip. “It is not just due to my aura, either. My presence, all that I represent –regardless of who I am– it is a trigger for you, and your pain is sharp and vicious.”

Angela winced, her face melting into an expression of raw pain for a second before she squared her shoulders again. “There has to be something I can do! I can’t… I can’t…” her clenched fists were still trembling, and she did not seem to be able to control it. “I can’t stay like this forever, and it is… it is not fair on you, either. You have nothing to do with…” she made a small, muffled sound, then brought one fist to cover her mouth, agitated.

Zenyatta took a step back, and two of his orbs chimed softly and lit up golden, moving to surround Angela’s frame, soothing her, creating a barrier between her and Zenyatta.

“You are hurt,” he said, gently, his voice humming. “It is not shameful, nor is it a weakness. That you wish to learn, that you think about my feelings, and want to get better… this is remarkable, but fighting against your pain will not make it disappear. Your will is strong, Angela, and yet… you have not allowed yourself to feel the Discord within you, or accept it.”

“How can I accept it? It is not–” there were tears welling in her eyes, and she blinked, aggressively denying herself even that. She took a deep, shaky breath, then wiped her eyes with both hands, exhaling through gritted teeth. “Is there anything I can do? Even just…”

Zenyatta hesitated, thought about it for a second, Genji tense at his side. “You have not been sleeping. I suggest you take a day for yourself, spend it with someone you care about, and rest. If it is alright with you, I will leave one of my orbs at your side.”

With a flick of his wrist, he sent one mala towards her, and let it hover in front of her face. Angela lifted both hands underneath it, and Zenyatta let it fall in her cupped fingers, its surface warm and glowing with just the faintest gold sheen.

“What… what would that do?”

“You refuse to step away from your thoughts, but being around me is detrimental for you. Let yourself recover, come to terms with my prolonged presence at your base, and clear your mind. Proper rest will do wonders, and maybe afterwards, we can attempt to approach the problem again.”

“But I cannot leave!” Angela seemed even more agitated. “I have work to do, and my exams to prepare for, and my duties–”

“Angela.” Genji took a step forwards. “You have been overworking yourself. I’m worried. Winston is, as well, and Lucio, and Hana, and _Fareeha_. Even Jack and Ana are.” At her guilty flinch, Genji smiled, just a little. “It’s a good thing if you take a break. We’ll still be here, alright?”

Still conflicted, hands clenching hard around Zenyatta’s mala, Angela looked ready to bolt out of the room. “I’ll… I’ll think about it,” she muttered, and her retreat was hasty, though she did not let go of the orb, taking whatever small comfort she could from the trickle of Harmony.

Zenyatta turned to look at Genji. “I think it would be better if you went with her,” he told him. “I will be alright on my own.”

Looking torn, Genji glanced between Zenyatta and the open door of the common room before finally nodding and running to catch up to her.

Zenyatta watched him go, humming softly to himself. Angela was a good person, and he was glad she had so many who cared for her, and with Genji at her side, she would be alright.

Left alone in the common room, Zenyatta pondered what to do, optical receptors watching the remaining four mala spin lazily around him.

After everything that had happened in the past few days, Zenyatta was left with far less of them than ever before; one was still in the sentai’s hands, and he had not asked for it back, but a second one had been taken in as well –the one that had come into contact with the first black orb, destabilizing it– because the nanites in it were volatile, and Winston had not wanted Zenyatta to end up harmed if he tried to reconnect with it. One orb had been freely offered to Angela, and if she did leave the base, it would stay with her until she was back, and two more were–

As if on cue, a small jolt in the back of his mind made him gasp, back straightening and servos tensing.

The two mala he had left scouting through the city, looking for that aquatic omnic, pinged back to him.

Finally –three days since he’d started living in the sentai hadquarters, and five since he’d faced the nanites to help Genji, his mala had managed to track down the elusive omnic.

His mala sent him a view of the river just outside of one of the entrances to the sewer –an area Zenyatta had explored for weeks, searching ways in and out– and Zenyatta’s processors analysed the images.

The water was somewhat murky in that spot, and looked deep, and as he looked, there was some movement from within its depths.

There they were.

“Athena,” he called out, alerting the AI as he rushed towards the closest window, “I’m going to leave the base.”

“That does not seem to be a good idea.”

“That is irrelevant. There is something I have to do outside, so will you please tell Genji… no, Winston, as I assume Genji will soon leave with Angela, that I will be back as soon as possible?”

“You shouldn’t go out,” Athena tried again, her tone worried and hesitant. “My suggestion would be to wait until Winston is free, and then ask directly for his permission…”

Zenyatta paused, one foot already on the windowsill. “Permission?”

“Well, yes, it might be dangerous to go outside, and–”

“I am grateful that the sentai are offering me a place to stay, and they are willing to help me, but I am not going to hide here. I know my way around the city without being seen, and I am not going to remain quiet when someone needs my presence. This is my responsibility, and my duty.”

“You do sound like Genji,” Athena murmured, her voice a mix of amusement and acceptance, “I see why he likes you.”

Zenyatta’s forehead array flickered a little, core heating up at her words, then he chuckled. “That is very nice of you to say, Athena. So, will you alert Winston?”

“Yes, I will. Take care not to get hurt, though.”

Zenyatta hummed softly and then jumped out of the window, nanites surging up around him, activating their masking abilities, and then he was off.

***

Zenyatta kept the situation monitored with his orbs as he made his way to where the omnic turned monster had been seen, trying to move as quickly as he could, but it proved to be difficult.

His body was still sluggish, and now that he was out of the sentai base and moving on his own, the feeling was only more noticeable. His sensors took a few more seconds to register changes around him, his processors ticking a fraction of a second slower –not impactful if he had been fully organic, but as an omnic, he could feel the difference as keenly as a human would if they developed a congestion, or a cold.

The weird sensation of bloating returned as he used his nanites actively, though they responded without a problem, but… something was amiss.

Still, as he hurried through the city streets, keeping out of sight just in case, Zenyatta could feel the sensation easing, perhaps due to the movement and having used the nanites for the first time in almost a week, so he put the worry for his own condition to the back of his head and focused instead on finding the omnic.

When he arrived near the river, the area was empty. The water’s surface appeared calm, no rippled to indicate anything was inside, and Zenyatta made his way to the edge, kneeling and lowering one of his orbs under the surface.

The water was not clean, and there were chunks of trash floating in it as the orb slowly made it way deeper down, surrounded by a thin layer of omnic energy to keep it dry, but it was clear enough to see, though the deeper the orb went the murkier it became. Still no sight of the omnic, and Zenyatta felt a pang of regret –did he arrive too late? Was the omnic gone already…?

The orb returned the image of a long discharge tube around the bottom of the river, so maybe…

Sighing, Zenyatta stood up, ready to recall the rest of his orbs and try to follow the omnic, but then he felt a weird sensation prickle the back of his head, and when he connected to his leftover orbs, all he could see was…

Black.

He paused on the edge of the water, wondering if the omnic had somehow swallowed one of his mala, optical receptors focused on the murky water in front of him–

Something heavy slammed into his back, and sent him straight into the waters in front of him.

Flailing, Zenyatta managed only a strangled gasp of surprise before he hit the surface and fell into the river, body heavy as it sank. After the change, he’d realised his body had turned fully waterproof, probably due to the organic DNA mix, but the idea of being underwater still sent a thrill of fear down his circuits.

He swatted his legs and arms, twisting in the water, and something black followed him from above, pushing him further below, surrounding him like a heavy blanket.

Zenyatta gasped again, his synth crackling underwater, and twisted around, forehead array blinking on and off as he felt something crawl all over his chassis, and then– the same something interfaced with his processors.

His brain jolted in recognition as he finally caught up, recognizing what had attacked him as a swarm of nanites, buzzing all over his servos.

Now aware of who his enemy was, he reacted instantly, severing the connection and rejecting it, his own nanomachines surging up in anger at the attempted hijacking.

The nanomachines inched away from him, still buzzing, and Zenyatta seized that moment to kick the water and propel himself further away from them, gaining a bit of space to move around; his body after the change was… unusually suited for swimming, though he had avoided going into the water regardless, so the speed he gained as he swam away from the nanites surprised him.

Focusing on getting out of danger, Zenyatta left behind a trail of bubbles and ripples in the water as he moved up, up– and broke past the surface of the river.

Water sloshed over his optical receptors as he looked around. Had the omnic attacked him? He had not expected him to have such a control over his own nanites, but–

A heavy weight wrapped around his leg and tugged him back down.

Gasping and kicking against the nanomachines dragging him deeper towards the bottom of the river, Zenyatta felt them connect again to his own, and a sudden jolt of pain travelled up his leg, momentarily shocking him.

He gasped, the sound warbled by the water, nanomachines moving up his leg, capturing his other one, then he focused again, and a wave of Discord surged from within his body, pushing down and disconnecting the nanomachines, which fell away from his feet, disorientated and fluttering in the water around him.

Zenyatta resurfaced again, swimming towards the edge of the river and hoisting himself onto the dry bank, synth fizzling by the leftover pain, water dripping from his frame.

“Fun,” a voice, deep and rough, spoke from behind him.

Startled, Zenyatta rolled around.

Hovering inches above the river’s surface was a swarm of black, inky nanites, and somewhere higher than that was a white mask, the edges frayed through, flickering.

The intent behind the attack was clear, and now he had an entity to blame, and it was not the omnic he’d been seeking. This was an incognita who also possessed nanomachines, and could control them to a scary degree.

“Who are you?” Zenyatta cleared his voice box and sat up, arms shaking slightly.

“Hmmm, I wonder if I should answer you…” slowly, the nanites moved back together, rising higher and higher above the water, mixing and swirling before they formed a human-like shape, with fluttery edges, buff shoulder pads and metallic knuckle spikes, and a hood over the head, resembling Zenyatta’s one though the stranger’s attire was completely black. “I think I won’t.”

The face was hidden behind a white mask whose shape reminded Zenyatta of a bird of prey, or a skull. Intimidating, and dangerous.

“I was looking for you, Cultist. You seem… not quite what I was told you’d be.” With even, heavy footsteps, the masked man advanced to the riverbank, stepping on it and towering over Zenyatta, looking down at him. Behind the holes of the mask, Zenyatta thought he saw a pair of crimson glowing eyes. “What a disappointment.”

Zenyatta’s head snapped back, assessing the possible danger.

This stranger could use nanites, and had no trouble disassembling his entire body –something Zenyatta himself had never tried, nor wished to– and his tone was throaty and raspy, mocking him.

He had no idea who he was, or what he wanted, but he clearly had no good intentions, as he’d attacked without warning. If Zenyatta had been anyone else, the time spent underwater might have been enough to incapacitate him.

He had to consider this incognita a danger and treat him as such.

Zenyatta hesitated, then stretched his senses out, and instantly regretted it –the onslaught of Discord he received back was like a punch in the guts, fizzling through his circuits so hard he backed away, closing himself again.

What he’d felt…

So much anger, so much pain… that masked person was most definitely not a monster, but he was also… not fully human, either, though he knew he was at least partly organic.

“It is dangerous to judge an opponent simply after one cursory glance,” he murmured then, addressing him. “I would even say it is quite stupid, but then again… I would not wish to overestimate you.”

He rose to his feet, nanomachines buzzing over his chassis, helping him move as gracefully as he could, stepping a little away from the river, putting some distance between himself and the perceived danger.

Forehead array burning green, the same shade ominously glowing from his core and the underside of his mouth piece, Zenyatta straightened his back, all his mala circling him, their eyes also glowing green as they glared at the masked stranger, daring him to move.

“Oh, that was _precious_.” The man murmured, a chuckle making his shoulders shake. “There is something in that monstrous appearance of yours, then. This suits me just fine. I will enjoy bringing you down.”

Cracking his knuckles, the figure shifted, arms open wide, beckoning, the edges of his body shifting, expanding, fading into clouds of nanomachines.

Zenyatta tensed at the sight. Such control…

This masked stranger was here seeking the Cultist, could use nanomachines to a dangerous degree, had waited until he’d appeared and then had attacked him from behind, and acted like he wished to destroy him while also toying with him…

Zenyatta did not think this was the behaviour of a hero, but he’d also seen his fair share of shady vigilantes in the past, more mercenary than hero.

“Who are you?” he asked again, his tone steely.

“Why should I tell you? A disadvantage like this is good for me. I plan to bring you down to your knees, Cultist.”

“I would not find the lack of a name quite the disadvantage,” Zenyatta answered mildly, hands pressed together in front of his body in carefully constructed ease. “You only need to know mine when you are defeated and I stand above you.”

And again, the stranger laughed. “Then it is only correct you know mine, for when you are begging for your life, you will scream my name. You can call me… Reaper.”

“I never heard of a hero of that name –or a vigilante,” Zenyatta replied, his orbs rotating slowly around him. Calculating. “Maybe I missed the roll call when the edgier heroes were introduced. My apologies. I will make sure to pay more attention… after I defeat you.”

“Oh, do continue, you amuse me.” Reaper purred, lifting both hands in the air. “But you misunderstand. I am no hero. I am not here on some misguided attempt to free the world of a dangerous monster. I am simply Reaper. Most fitting, as I will be the one to harvest your soul.”

Zenyatta’s forehead array flickered a dark, blinding green. “How disingenuous of you, to believe monsters have souls.”

“Only talking from experience, Cultist. They call you this, and yet I see but an army of one. How preposterous. Or do you prefer to lay low, and show your strength in person?”

“The way I work is of no importance. I am quite enough to bring you down, either way.”

Reaper laughed again, amused, and the sound sent a shiver down Zenyatta’s back, though he did not move, not wanting to appear intimidated.

He knew not what this Reaper could do, and he did not seem willing to share with Zenyatta why he was there, or how he knew where to find him.

Misguided hero or something more sinister, it made no difference. All he could do was bide his time and face this threat until he could leave, and then maybe… the sentai would know who Reaper was.

He just had to keep his guard up, and wait.


	15. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am running on a 5-days long headache, so i haven't had time to reply to reviews before now (i just finished editing the chapter for posting) so i'll do it now, forgive me for being so slow! I hope you enjoy this chapter! :D

**Chapter 14**

_~Three days earlier~_

Genji looked out of his bedroom, chin pressed on his hands.

He was… tired. Aching. And somewhere deep in the base, in a small room the other sentai had freed for him, was Zenyatta, probably just as aching and tired as he was.

Genji had no intention to harass him too much –probably he was already fed up with Genji hovering all the time behind him– but he couldn’t stop thinking about him, wondering if the room was comfortable, wondering what he could do to make the time he would spend with them a little better, a little less sad, a little less lonely.

“Athena–”

“No, Genji. Your friend Zenyatta has yet to move from the bedroom he was assigned to.”

“An–”

“Yes, I have asked him, repeatedly, if he is alright with his accommodations. He has expressed pleasure in having somewhere quiet, though he would not mind something to read.”

“Ah! Thank you!” Genji jumped to his feet, hastily rushing to his shelves, shoving stuff around. “What do you think he might like? What about mystery, or horror–”

“Maybe I would avoid the latter,” Athena giggled, her synthetic voice full of amusement. “You could bring him some of your favourites, though. He might enjoy them.”

“Yes, but– what if he hates them? No, I’ll just… bring him a classic or… do I even have those–” Genji started shuffling around his books and comics, shoving most of them on the floor, but his phone ringing in his pocket halted him mid-motion.

The ringtone was the part that startled him the most, a familiar old style ballad which he’d not heard for weeks now.

He pulled the phone out and glanced at the screen, confirming the name of the caller, and with a soft sigh, he picked up the call.

“Hanzo.”

“Genji.”

For a few seconds, neither spoke, and Genji looked down at the scattered books at his feet.

“It’s… been a while since I heard from you, brother.” he finally spoke, breaking the silence. “Are you well?”

“This is not the time for pleasantries, Genji,” Hanzo’s voice sounded rough on the edges, and just as curt as Genji remembered, and his lips tilted upwards in a smile. “I felt it.”

“You felt… what? That you missed me? I’d hope so, we haven’t talked in two weeks now.”

“No, I mean–” Hanzo hesitated, hummed deep in his throat, and Genji chuckled, picturing him rubbing the bridge of his nose. “That, too. I have missed you, Genji. I am sorry for not calling earlier. There has been a lot of work, and I could not–”

“You could not spare the time to call your little, worried, lonely brother? Hanzo, I’m wounded…”

Hanzo made a strangled, throaty sound, and Genji chuckled. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m just… I’m really happy to hear you, alright? I got worried something had happened.”

“No, everything is alright. Work is just demanding,” Hanzo grumbled, but there was fondness to his voice now. “I sent you an e-mail, but you might not have checked.”

“Uh… no, actually. I didn’t. Sorry.” Genji scratched his arm, then “I’m also sorry. You know. For not calling you either. Things have been–”

“Busy with work?”

“Ha ha, yeah. You have no ide– actually yes, you might have. Is the Dragon Archer doing his best to keep his city protected?”

“I don’t know, is Green sentai?”

“You can bet your shiny arrows!”

Hanzo’s laughter was soft, and perhaps a touch tired, but it made Genji smile to hear it. “But Genji…” he sounded serious again, and Genji cleared his throat. “I called because I felt it. Your dragon.”

Startled, Genji almost dropped his phone. “What–”

“Your dragon surged up, and there was a disturbance that my dragons felt, and through my connection to them, I also felt it. Your dragon… it almost disappeared, yesterday.”

Oh.

“… oh.”

“Is… is that all you have to say, Genji?” the tension in his brother’s voice was thick, almost scathing if Genji didn’t know any better. “You almost… what… what happened to you? To your dragon? I tried to call you right away, but the phone was off. I tried to call your team, but no one answered. I was worried, and if not for the fact that I felt your dragon’s spirit burn still, I might have thought…”

Genji winced. He had not thought that his brother would feel… whatever had happened. He had not realised he’d been so close to…

Hanzo had tried to call him. He’d been probably awake, maybe training, or patrolling his city, and then he’d felt… and Genji had his phone back at the base.

“Hanzo…” Genji sat down on his bed, all thought of going to see Zenyatta fading from the forefront of his mind. “A lot of things happened these past weeks. But everything happened so quickly, and I just… I did not think you would…”

“Is it something to do with your sentai duty? I am your brother, and I am aware of your standing. I’d hope I have the clearance to hear what happened.”

Genji buried his face in his hands, rubbing at the skin of his cheeks until it felt raw and red. “You do,” voice muffled, Genji exhaled slowly. “You always do, but I just… don’t think you’ll like what I have to say. Yet–”

A cold suspicion made its way through Genji’s chest, and he froze.

“–you _need_ to know. We found something about the monsters we fight, brother –but I will have to ask Jack and Ana about clearance for your team.”

It took Genji no more than ten minutes to explain everything, but as he spoke, words jumbled, falling over himself to try and explain everything in a way that Hanzo would understand, his brother was completely silent.

“… Hanzo…?”

“These are… nefarious things you tell me. That we might have fought and perhaps… killed… innocent beings…” Hanzo’s tone was tight, his accent growing more noticeable as he cursed. “Why is it not something everybody can know, Genji? All the heroes fighting monsters now… all of them might have…”

“Because there is something worse going on, Hanzo. Jack is afraid someone important might be behind this, and without knowing who to trust, the fewer know what is going on the best, at least for now. I do… I do trust you, though. If you need to have clearance for your team, you will need to talk about this with Jack.”

“This is… troubling. I will have to book a flight as soon as possible.”

“Yes, you do that and– wait. What? Book a… Hanzo?!”

“I’ll come over as soon as I find a replacement to cover for me. It would not do to leave the city unprotected while I am away. I cannot let my little brother face this sort of danger on his own. I cannot possibly allow it!”

Shaken by the sheer strength of Hanzo’s determination, Genji had no choice but to smile, shoulders shaking slightly. “You’re so bothersome, Hanzo,” he muttered into his phone. Then, after a few seconds of silence, “But I’ll be happy to see your grumpy face.”

“I will be happy to see you as well, Genji. Are you going to be alright now?”

“Yeah, sure,” Genji waved one hand in the air, aware that Hanzo would not see it. He was still tired, but knowing his brother would be here soon brought a sense of security to him, and then… Zenyatta was also safe, at the base.

Things were going to be _alright_.

***

_~Present time~_

“Angela!”

Genji chased down Angela through the corridor, grateful when she slowed her pace enough that he could reach her, though when he did, he found her trembling, blinking away tears.

“Hey…”

“Listen.” Despite her shaking, her voice was steady. “I know he’s right.” She was still holding the orb Zenyatta had given her in both hands, her knuckles white, absorbing the Harmony it was emitting like a lifeline. “But it’s… it’s still…”

“I know it’s difficult, but I also know you’re a stubborn butt,” Genji interrupted her, and his remark startled a surprised laughter out of her. “But no one can shoulder that much weight and keep going without rest. So… take your day off, alright? Winston will give it to you. Two, even, or three. And you know Fareeha will love spending some time with you.”

Brushing the palm of one hand on her reddened cheeks, Angela nodded, sniffing. “You’re an ass, Genji,” she told him, her voice shaky between a laugh and a sob. “But thank you.”

“You’re wel–” Genji jumped when his phone suddenly ringed in his pocket. “Who…” the caller ID was internal to the base, which surprised him. “Winston? Why are you calling me on the phone instead of asking–”

“Genji.” Winston’s voice was hard, an edge of tension that sent a shiver down Genji’s back. “Your friend just left the base.”

“Wha– what? Zenyatta? He left?! What the–”

“He told Athena to warn me, and said he plans to return. Something must have happened –I noticed he had less orbs at his side than usual, so perhaps he was still patrolling the city. I’m… that is not the only thing, though.” Winston hesitated and lowered his voice. “Go get him and bring him back as soon as possible, we have a uh, a _situation_.”

“Winston, what’s going on? Why did you call me through the phone?”

“Moira is here, and is currently standing in front of the base, waiting for Athena’s clearance to get inside. I did not think it would be a good idea to, uh, broadcast this conversation, just in case.”

Eyes wide in shock, Genji froze.

He had completely forgotten about Moira’s threat to come over, and now she was there.

“She can’t find Zenyatta! She’ll just dissect him like… uh… like a guinea pig!”

“Well, I wouldn’t… I mean, maybe… I mean. Uh. Yeah. She will _definitely_ use him like a guinea pig. _So_ we need to make sure he’s safe and sound inside the base _and_ in his room. Go find him, Genji. Right now.”

***

“Well then. If you are not the reckless kind, I will have to move first.” Reaper’s voice was almost too pleased.

Zenyatta had refused to attack first, preferring to keep his guard up, and Reaper seemed to have no problems with that.

The nanomachines forming his body split from his waist area and flew to his hands, only to reform into the shape of a pair of twin guns, elongated and sleek and just as black as the rest of his attire.

It was obvious that Reaper’s control over his own nanomachines was greater than Zenyatta’s own.

He was sure that Reaper was a human, based on gestures that were more compliant with human behaviour rather than that of an omnic, but such complete control was surprising and Zenyatta knew he would need to be wary of him.

At least Zenyatta had regained his ability to touch the Iris, so he could do more than before, even with the handicap of the sluggish nanomachines inside him.

“So, that is your choice of weapon,” Zenyatta hummed. “Quite unusual, considering your… abilities.”

His answer was a chuckle. “What can I say –I enjoy surprising my victims. Wouldn’t work the same, with a scythe.”

And then, he attacked.

Moving fast –faster than Zenyatta had anticipated– Reaper was on him.

Zenyatta shifted his balance backwards, thrusting one leg up, narrowly avoiding a gun pointed at his head. Reaper’s midsection split neatly in two, nanomachines separating so Zenyatta’s leg went through him, only to combine back together right away.

Reaper chuckled and moved closer, sweeping one foot underneath Zenyatta, aiming to make him stumble, but Zenyatta simply curled both legs underneath himself.

Omnic energy flickered freely across his chassis, and he levitated just out of the way.

Reaper seemed taken aback, side-stepping away from him, and Zenyatta reacted by shooting an orb his way.

It seemed like there was a limit to how many times Reaper could dissolve himself in a short period of time, because this time the orb connected with a sharp crack, sending him tumbling further away.

Zenyatta did not wait for him to regain his breath, a flurry of orbs flying following the lead of the first, all of them coated in omnic energy; he managed to hit Reaper only twice more though –one on his arm and the other on his side– before he rolled out of the way and stumbled on his feet, breathing heavily.

For a second, they stared at one another at a reasonable distance, Zenyatta floating easily, Reaper staring at him.

“Now that’s unexpected,” Reaper grunted, but there was something else in his voice –like interest.

“Life is surprising, isn’t it?”

Being able to float again was… liberating. Zenyatta felt a little more like himself again, after so long without it. Omnic energy could work for things like coating his mala, or his own body, but to make himself float, one had to be in complete balance with their own soul, and Zenyatta… well. He had lacked that, missing the Iris and his own inner peace.

But now…

Reaper attacked again.

Part of his body dissolved and he approached fast, weapons pointed at Zenyatta, and shot –Zenyatta avoided the first spray of bullets, then twisted in mid-air to avoid the second, and the third almost hit him in the chest, but he made a sharp motion with his wrist and his orbs interjected the attack, bullets falling away from him.

He retaliated by sending three of his orbs in rapid succession. One passed through Reaper, then a second, and when Reaper returned to his solid state, he hit the third with the side of his gun, sending it away, metal against metal.

Moving towards him, Zenyatta fell back on his feet and moved forwards, and when Reaper turned his attention to him, he recalled the two mala to him and both connected with the back of Reaper’s head, breaking his momentum enough for Zenyatta to reach him, press both hands against his chest, and force a wave of Discord right through him.

Reaper stumbled backwards, growling deep in his throat, and Zenyatta watched as the nanomachines on his chest destabilized, making his edges blurred and frayed.

“What. Was. _That_.”

“Hmm… now that would be what I’d call an advantage,” Zenyatta replied, tapping one finger against his mouth piece.

“It seems I might have to take you seriously, after all.”

Reaper attacked again.

This time, he kept himself at a good distance, obviously wary of Zenyatta’s Discord attack, which had clearly rattled him enough that his nanomachines were still buzzing.

Zenyatta felt a trickle of regret for using Discord in such way on Reaper, more so considering the pain he had sensed within him earlier, but considering the situation –he risked being harmed, incapacitated or worse– he found himself justified.

Despite Reaper’s use of weapon, he did not seem to need reloading –the bullets were nanomachines he shot forwards, but even then they should have ran out, and yet… they didn’t. It was extremely concerning.

No time to think much about it, because every time Zenyatta tried to angle himself differently, or move back, Reaper used the chance to strike further.

One blast of bullets nicked Zenyatta on the side, where some of his exposed cables were, pain sharp and abrupt, soothed almost instantly as his own nanomachines surged up in a wave, the motion unexpected even to Zenyatta, who had not ordered them to.

The pain dulled down into nothing under the buzzing work of the nanites, but their surging up was just as concerning as Reaper’s endless bullets.

Reaper did not seem to notice his hesitation, too busy attacking again, and Zenyatta reacted with a flurry of his own projectiles, until they were both a blur of motion, black against purple.

Unfortunately, Zenyatta did not have the unending ammo Reaper had –his orbs were numbered, and so was his strength, whereas Reaper, while panting hard, did not seem to be otherwise affected by their fight, and slowly…

Slowly, Reaper started landing more blows on Zenyatta, one by one, using the times Zenyatta took to gather back his orbs to himself or collect more omnic energy to shoot.

It did not help that Reaper could keep avoiding some of Zenyatta’s hits, though when Zenyatta noticed the rhythm and how long he could keep his body in that state, he started to prepare decoy hits to attack right when that effect ended, but overall, the difference in their abilities was simply a matter of experience –and Reaper seemed to use that to his advantage, pressing against him every time Zenyatta had to reload.

Slowly, Zenyatta realised he was being pushed into a corner.

A spray of bullets hit the side of Zenyatta’s head, scratching his face plate and sending him sprawled backwards, landing in a heap near the edge of the river, his processes confused and disjointed after the hit.

His voice box scratched and cracked as he cried out in pain, his control over his orbs slipping and they fell around him for a second as he tried to get up and get ready–

Reaper was on him an instant later.

One gun pressed against his forehead array, Reaper chuckled before most of his body dissolved into a cloud of nanites.

“Well, well, well. Looks like the mice has been finally caught.”

Zenyatta arched up, hands splayed wide as he collected Discord in them, but Reaper’s nanites descended on him, slamming both of his arms down to the side, keeping him pinned and jolting him out of his concentration.

“If you think this will stop me, you have severely misjudged the situation,” Zenyatta hummed.

He focused on the Discord within him, called it forth, ready to coat his entire body in it once again even as Reaper became more solid above him, gun still pointed at his forehead–

Water exploded from the edge of the river.

A tall, massive column of water rose into the sky, shocking both Zenyatta and Reaper. Zenyatta craned his neck to look, and Reaper pushed back enough to stare, and–

A silhouette rose above the surface, rising high enough to loom over them, a massive tail swinging their way–

Neither were prepared for it.

The hit sent Zenyatta flying into the air, rolling away from Reaper and plummeting into the waters below, a second splash a fraction of a second later signalling that Reaper had fallen in as well.

Zenyatta went down, optical receptors fizzling to adjust to the water, and caught sight of Reaper a few feet away from him, guns dissolving back into his body.

The monster that had hit them slammed into the water seconds later, following them down, and Zenyatta instinctively opened himself, registering–

_Anger, pain, confusion_ from the monster, no, the omnic who had been turned into an aquatic monster–

Pain slashed at him from the side, belonging to Reaper, an agony so keen and complete it fizzled through his circuits, Zenyatta’s body freezing in shock, his servos paralyzed by the waves coming at him…

He twirled out of the way just in time.

The omnic monster passed right over him, their screaming vibrating through the air, desperate and furious, and their tail almost slammed into his head.

Reaper was only inches away, body half-dissolved and nanites swarming, and the omnic monster passed right _through_ him, still thrashing.

Zenyatta felt panic curl around his soul.

This was his fault, the omnic was a monster because of him, but… why was the monster so aggressive, why did he feel so disconnected, the discord fluctuating within him, mindless rage taking its place, why…

The omnic screamed again, and Reaper turned his attention away from Zenyatta.

Discord and sharp focus filtered through Zenyatta’s senses, muddled with pain and anger, and he felt Reaper’s intent right away –he planned to hurt, incapacitate the new threat before returning to finish Zenyatta himself.

“No!” his own synth sounded distorted in the water, barely recognizable, and he arched towards Reaper.

He flung himself upwards, intent in pushing some Harmony through to the omnic to calm them down, enough to make them run, and pressed one hand against the curve of the omnic’s lower back, focusing–

The moment his hand touched the omnic, something within Zenyatta snapped.

He felt a sudden static charge run through his circuits like a jolt of pain, and…

Inside him, something surged up. Some of the nanomachines across his chassis bubbled and moved across his frame, running up his arm to his fingers, reaching out for the omnic, and Zenyatta could feel them like an external entity, not his own but part of him at the same time, and–

They _pulled_.

The shock ricocheted through his circuits and Zenyatta could not understand the input he was receiving but it _hurt_.

[ _Cease._ ]

To his shock, the nanomachines refused to listen, and he felt them buzz louder, out of his control, and Zenyatta jolted when something burned from within his chest.

The nanomachines in his body were not responding to his–

[ _Stop._ ]

They did not stop.

They burned through Zenyatta’s hand, darker black against the omnic’s body, and Zenyatta felt them pull again, uncontrolled, and it was only when small fragments of the omnic’s tail splintered and dissolved in front of him and his own nanites surged away from his body to absorb them that he understood what was happening.

Fear slammed into him.

His brain split the tasks –processors running diagnostics, others trying to access the extra nanites to stop them, the rest of him fighting the panic rising from within him.

Warnings flashed through his vision –a percentage of his nanites was out of control, but it was only a minimal part, and it was…

The nanites he’d absorbed from Genji.

They were acting independently from him, erratic and surging to multiply, and Zenyatta frantically tried to cull their processes, interfacing with them to prevent them from harming the omnic, but–

 [ _No. Stop. Cease._ ]

Again his direct order was ignored.

At his side, Reaper’s glowing red eyes observed him from underneath his mask, looking even more ghostly in the murky water. He could feel his interest filter through his open senses like a beacon, and that, more than anything, scared him further.

He could not focus on understanding his nanites now, not when he had to keep Reaper away from himself and the other omnic, but… he now had to keep himself away from the omnic as well.

The omnic screamed in pain again, and slashed at him with his tail, and Zenyatta was shoved back, the connection between them broken. In pain and hurt, the omnic swam away, wobbling a little, but instead of going deeper into the murky river, they shot upwards, towards the surface.

Reaper seemed to hesitate before he followed him up, casting one last glance at Zenyatta and tilting his head to the side as if beckoning him, and though he could not read the face underneath the white mask, Zenyatta read the gesture for what it was –a challenge.

Determined not to be left behind, Zenyatta followed them up, though his body felt heavy.

He lagged behind, feeling the nanites weight him down, his circuits fizzing to align with the new extra.

Zenyatta had no idea what was happening, but it scared him, and yet he could not stop to think about it.

Returning to the surface was a relief, his optical receptors settling back to their customary wavelength; he scrambled to stand up on the riverbank, wavering a little as his body felt almost lethargic, head snapping up to see the monster thrashing wildly as Reaper attacked them.

The monster screamed again, and this time Zenyatta’s auricular receptors received the full brunt of the loud, agonizing sound, even as Zenyatta closed his senses of to prevent them from crashing under the assault of the added Discord.

Reaper pushed forwards instead, hands stretching in front of himself, and his guns reappeared in his grip, their tip pointed right at the thrashing omnic monster’s head as they darted around, tail raising in the air, massive fangs open, ready to strike–

“No.”

Zenyatta pushed his arms wide open and transcended.

Again, the Iris surged from within him, filling him with warmth, and the light encompassed everything, almost brighter than the light of the day.

Zenyatta surged forwards, fast, fast enough to come between the omnic and Reaper, the pain and the fatigue forgotten within the Iris.

Reaper seemed to shrink away from him, a strangled sound of shock and pain leaving his throat as he stumbled away from Zenyatta, guns falling from his lax fingers only to dissolve back into nanites.

Part of his body wavered, some of it seeming to want to move closer to Zenyatta, but the rest pushed away, far from him, gasping and writhing under the weight of Zenyatta’s light.

On the other side, the omnic screeched again, seemingly just as captured by his Transcendence as Reaper, and with the same reluctant reaction.

Hovering between them, Zenyatta spread the Iris further from himself, and this time his entire body answered as one, no part of him going against his will.

He knew he could not hold onto this form too long, and every second was important, so he pushed harder.

Under the warmth of the Iris, his nanomachines pushed and tugged, and he felt Reaper grunt and then let out a soft, gurgling scream, backing further away from him, though Zenyatta did notice, through the haze of the Iris, that his nanites suddenly seemed more solid.

The other omnic had enough; with a soft, echoing whimper, afraid and in pain, they pushed away and slipped back into the river, and it was only when the last ripples on the water’s surface were gone that Zenyatta finally allowed himself to let go of the Iris.

His body thrummed in pain, exerted to its limits, aching and tired, but he knew it was for the best, leftover static travelling across his chassis, and his feet touched the ground again.

For a few, long seconds, they did not move, watching one another, Reaper’s chest heaving and Zenyatta attempting to look unaffected.

“Hmmm…” Reaper’s voice was guttural, and raspy, and he was panting a bit. “That… is quite the unexpected ability.”

Zenyatta linked his fingers together in front of his chest. “I _am_ full of surprises,” he said, keeping his voice even. “I notice some of them are not to your liking.”

He knew that if Reaper attacked him again, he would not be able to counterattack now, strained and tired, but bluffing was his only chance, now.

Yet, it was clear his enemy was also on edge and just as tired, and coming in contact with both Discord and Transcendence had forced him to reassess Zenyatta’s danger levels.

With a grunt, Reaper took a step back.

“You were hiding far too many things, Cultist.” He grunted, displeased and raspy. “I will return.”

And right in front of him, Reaper seemed to melt into the ground, his nanomachines fizzling as they disappeared from sight.

Zenyatta tensed up, optical receptors glancing around him in shock, but he could not find the other anywhere, and as he tentatively stretched out his senses, reaching for the familiar Discord, he could feel nothing either.

Not allowing himself to relax, Zenyatta ran a quick diagnostic test of his own body. Since absorbing Genji’s nanomachines, he had a few background tests running all the time, but none of them seemed to signal anything wrong with him, and these new ones said the same –nothing wrong, no abnormalities. The extra nanites seemed to be completely absorbed within him, and behaving.

Yet, the foundation of this security had been shattered.

Those extra nanites were still in his body, a quantity of them that was now even greater, but they did not ping his tests or firewalls at all.

Zenyatta felt a chill run down his back.

If he could not check over himself to find what was wrong, how could he understand what had happened?

He needed the sentai and their technology. He’d waited so much already because the Red sentai, Ana Amari, had suggested him to rest before starting the tests, but now… he would need to have them start as soon as possible, if they could withstand his presence for that long.

***

Zenyatta found Genji donning his Green sentai attire patrolling the area around the headquarters, looking rather frantic in both pacing and aura.

He sent forth an orb towards him, still keeping his masking abilities up since the area was heavily populated, and remained hiding in a narrow street corner nearby, just behind a trash pile, until his mala led Genji to him.

“Zenyatta!” Genji stumbled into a stop at his side. “I was searching all over for you! Where did you go?”

“Forgive me, I had an unexpected encounter which disrupted my original reason for leaving,” Zenyatta sighed. “But due to this, I have news–”

“We have to go back to the base right now!” Genji interrupted him, with enough vehemence that Zenyatta faltered and stopped. “Moira is here!”

“I do not understand. Who is this… Moira? Is it a pressing matter? Because I have something important to share and…”

“She is pretty important, yes. She can’t know you are here, so we need to get inside through one of the secret entrances, if you don’t mind following me… but I can’t really see you if you hide yourself.”

Zenyatta hummed, then replaced the cloaking shimmer over himself, but kept one of his arms barren so Genji would be able to see it and know he was still at his side. To any outsider, it would appear as if there was a floating mechanical arm, but that was all Zenyatta could do.

“Well, that’s… weird, really.” Genji shook his head a bit, then he turned around. “Still alright. C’mon, let’s go!”

And just like that, he reached towards Zenyatta, his gloved hand wrapping around his wrist to tug him along.

The contact sent a shiver down Zenyatta’s back, processes halting for a fraction of a second as he stumbled to follow Genji, who was too preoccupied with leading him to an underground parking lot to notice the way he’d tensed up.

Unable to focus on anything else but Genji’s hand, it took Zenyatta a few minutes to realise that Genji was talking, and then he jolted in surprise, fans spinning loudly enough that even Genji paused. “Did you listen to what I was saying? You… are you alright? You seem out of–” only to finally realise that he was holding his wrist.

Genji stiffened and let him go right away, taking a step away from him. “I’m sorry! I did not mean to– Zenyatta I–” he fumbled with himself, bringing both hands to his face even though it was hidden behind the helmet. If Zenyatta had been paying attention, or reading his aura, he would have realised just how flustered and embarrassed he was, but Zenyatta was still too focused on how warm his wrist felt, and how he missed the casual contact to care about much else.

“No, it’s… it is alright. I’m sorry I was…” ‘overwhelmed’, he wanted to say, but the word remained stuck in his voice box and Zenyatta looked down, embarrassed at himself and his own reactions.

It was nothing more than a touch, and Genji had touched him before, but then it had been with a proper cause, and he’d been almost prepared for it, while now…

His core heated up, and Zenyatta cleared his synth. “My apologies. I am not unsettled by your casual contact. It is just…”

“Unexpected, yes? And… I’m sorry if it’s unpleasant, I did not mean to make you uncomfortable. I just… I didn’t want to lose you. I can’t really see you, but you need to stay close.”

“It was not… unpleasant.” Zenyatta’s synth crackled, his voice shaking. “I will not wander, I promise. Please lead the way.”

Zenyatta felt a bit of worry at the obvious concern Genji had with slipping inside the headquarters through a side entrance, and he wondered if it had anything to do with the Moira he’d mentioned before.

He hoped the danger was nothing pressing, as he needed to have the sentai do a check-up on his nanomachines, and…

“Here. This parking lot belongs to the hotel down the road, but there’s a hidden passage Winston built for us. We can leave it with our vehicles,” Genji explained.

He pressed a quick combination on a hidden number pad near the corner of a wall, and the wall slid to the side, revealing a well-lit road, big enough to fit even Hana’s mech.

“That is… impressive.” The moment the secret passage closed behind them, Zenyatta dropped his cloaking ability, his nanites returning dormant on his chassis. Genji did the same, his costume flickering out of sight.

“This is way better,” Genji muttered to himself, flashing him a small half-smile. “Sorry about this, but we need to be cautious. Moira is… dangerous. And I don’t like her. None of us does, not really. Angela is going to throw a fit when she comes back and finds out Moira got here without warning… she _really_ dislikes her.”

“Who is this Moira? Is she one of the sentai, like Miss Ana?”

“Ah… not exactly. She’s a scientist.” Genji appeared to fumble with his words. “She is… creepy. And mean. She is Winston’s old colleague, she was assigned a group of people, like the sentai, only hers is… more like a task force. They are… brutal. And she’s just… well, I don’t like her, that’s all.”

“Hmm…” Zenyatta rubbed one hand over the tip of his chin-tentacles. “You mean to say she was not… informed of my presence? Do you not trust her?”

“It’s not that, it’s just… her methods are different, and she has expressed a lot of interest over your orb. You said you would not mind having the sentai run some experiments on you but…” Genji clenched his hands into fists at his side, and Zenyatta paused, feeling the hint of displeasure in his tone.

“… Genji?”

“I’m sorry. I know it’s not my place to make comments about that, and you only wish to help others and find a way to turn back to how you were before, but…” Genji stopped walking, turning around to face Zenyatta. “At least if it’s us, I know we wouldn’t… hurt you! But Moira! She is… Angela calls her unethical, when she thinks we’re not listening. I think the same. Moira would not care about you, even knowing you’re not a monster, but even if you were…” he fumbled with his words again, frustrated, cheeks red, and Zenyatta felt his core flutter.

There was warmth in his tone when he spoke up, gentle compared to how harsh Genji’s tone had been. “I understand. You are saying that even with monsters, you still have your ethic, and harming them for the sake of science would go against it, but this Moira… she would not care.”

“Yes.” Shoulders slumping a little, Genji nodded and looked away. “And you… since it’s you, it’s worse. You’ve been through so much already, the idea of her trying to hurt you…” his head snapped back, eyes meeting Zenyatta’s optical receptors. “I will not allow it. You are safe with me, I promise. We just have to keep Moira out of it.”

“Thank you, Genji. I know I have been imposing on you so much, and now you had to chase me down instead of spending the day with your friend, but I am…” Zenyatta felt his voice box flicker with emotion, overwhelmed by Genji’s kindness. “… so very grateful.”

“Huh? What do you mean spending the day with–” Genji scratched his head, clearly not getting it.

“Genji, Zenyatta.” Athena interrupted them before they could speak further. “Forgive me, but I have news. Winston is having Moira and two of her squad stay at the base, but sent them to the east wing, so they will be away from the room you set up for Zenyatta. Zenyatta, Winston asked me to relay the message that you are not to go around the base by yourself –he is worried, and we cannot contact Jack nor Ana, as they have been too busy. I’m sorry but I share their worries –Moira is not a character to cross.”

“Thank you, Athena. I appreciate your warnings. Please do inform Winston that I would like to speak with him as soon as possible, though. Something happened that he will want to know.”

This seemed to attract Genji’s attention. “Zenyatta, what happened?”

Zenyatta sighed, intertwining his fingers in front of his chest. “I have much to say, but I would like to do so where there will be no chance for us to be interrupted. Let us go to my assigned room, and I will tell you everything.”


	16. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again another huge thank you to all my reviewers, im glad you still hang on to this ride! :D

**Chapter 15**

Winston quickly tapped on his keyboard, eyes watching lines of code flicker on the screen in front of him.

He was not a human, and as such, his expressions could not quite convey the level of emotional variety he could feel, but over the course of his life, he’d acquired a few quirks that allowed others to read him well enough nonetheless.

As he busied himself with his work, Genji could tell, with absolute clarity, that Winston was both worried and highly displeased. His big, nimble fingers tapped on the keyboard with a touch more energy than usual, and he could not stay still, shifting from one foot to the other, only to sit down and hoist both legs on the seat with him, only to then shuffle on the seat and then stand back up again, arms never standing still, nose wrinkling every now and then as his eyes followed the codes flashing in front of him.

Genji could relate to that mood –the idea of Moira at the base had unsettled them all enough that where they would be usually spending time together in the common room, now he was the only one there with Winston.

Hana had grabbed Lucio the moment he returned from his rounds and dragged him somewhere with her, Angela was still out with Fareeha –Winston had given her three days off, for now, and would ratify his decision later if she asked for more based on how much she did not want to see Moira– and Genji did not feel right leaving the base, not when Zenyatta was all alone in his room. When he’d tried to excuse himself, Moira had appeared in front of him, a pleasant smile on her lips, and had asked him about his personal record with the monsters and had inquired about his health, looking far too interested in his answers. Genji had not wanted to wander to Zenyatta’s room with Moira following him like an hawk, so he’d ended up joining Winston instead, waiting for him and Moira to get busy so he could slip away.

Genji wondered if he was the only one feeling the tension in the air, or if Moira was simply uncaring about its causes.

As it was, she was now busy reading over the list of experiments Winston had done on both his machine and Hana’s mech, sitting comfortably at the table near Winston, who was all too glad to appear too busy to talk with her.

Genji simply wanted to leave, feeling self-conscious and upset but trying to hide it, but every time he stood up, even if only to stretch, Moira’s eyes shifted to him right away.

He idly wondered if he would be able to sneak Zenyatta out with him for his daily patrol, and if he could justify leaving earlier just to get out of this situation.

“Well,” Moira cracked her knuckles and straightened in her chair, and both Genji and Winston turned to look at her right away. “You have done wonders for young Hana’s mech device. The propulsion is ingenious, and the technology you employed to create her Defense Matrix is… interesting. I wonder if I can look into your project on a bigger scale that could last longer.”

“Uh, ah… thank you. What… you wish to try and use her shields for something larger than her single mech?”

“Yes. I would like to use it for buildings, or perhaps for entire areas. It might protect people from monsters and direct them to less populated areas, to minimize damage to the city.”

“Oh, that is… quite a good idea, yes. I will give you some of the prospects and let you, uh, work on them on your own time.”

Moira hummed, then her eyes shifted from Winston to Genji.

“I am pleased to see that Genji’s health has allowed him to continue his work with the sentai rangers as well. There is quite a bit of technology employed to make sure his jaw and throat work as advised… no unpleasant drawbacks as of yet? How long as it been, five months?”

Suddenly dragged in the conversation, Genji fumbled with himself, clutching the phone in his hands like a lifeline. “It’s been alright,” he answered, pleased to sound casual and not like he’d just been startled. “Angela and Ana’s work was flawless. I have been into physical fights after my rehabilitation, and even being hit in the face did not impact my ability to fight, at least not in a different way from usual. It might not be the most appealing look–” Winston snorted, and even Moira’s lips quirked upwards at this, “–but it’s good enough for me. I’m just glad I could still be a sentai ranger.”

“Quite comforting to hear you so dedicated to the cause. And I wonder if it is this that has attracted the Cultist’s attention.”

Genji and Winston stiffened at this, the unexpected shift of the conversation shocking them both into silence.

Moira did not seem to notice as she stood up and moved towards the computers in front of Winston, placing one hand next to one of the screens.

“I have reviewed the mission reports and any footage you have of him,” she continued, tapping her fingers idly against the wall, “and your worry about the Cultist’s increasing interest towards Genji. That he might be… vulnerable… to that creature’s wits.”

Genji felt his cheeks grew hot, a mix of embarrassment and anger that settled into his stomach, and something else that felt weird at the same time.

“There… there’s nothing intriguing at all about the Cultist,” he denied, trying to keep the heat from his face, hoping Moira would not look his way. “He is an enemy to be defeated, nothing else.”

“Oh? How did you come to change your mind, then? You have said… and I quote from one of my earlier conversations with Winston… that you wished to try and… talk… with that monster, if only to understand his particular fixation with you.”

Genji looked away, still flustered and with annoyance bubbling up inside him. He could not let her know that things had changed, but lying made him weirdly upset. “I… I realise I might have been far too quick to believe even a monster can… harbour different ideas. But it is simply because I…” Genji hesitated, stumbled over his words, not sure about what to say that would not incriminate him further, or make her suspicious, too conscious of everything, especially his own burning cheeks. “I wanted to find proof that not all monsters are bad,” he finally mumbled.

And some were not –some of the monsters were not actually monsters at all.

“Oh, I understand. Sometimes such silly beliefs need to be disproved on the field. Is that what happened, Genji? Did you find out you were wrong about this… Cultist?”

Genji stiffened, and Winston cleared his throat, uncomfortable with the questioning as well.

“Moira, I think you are a little too heavy there. Genji is not wrong in wishing to find a different path. He is still one of the best heroes we have, and you cannot deny this.”

“I cannot. It is true. Yet… I also do not wish to see his efficacy dwindle out because of silly beliefs that are… unfounded.” But then, Moira sighed and her stance relaxed a bit. “Forgive me, you are indeed a responsible, reliable hero. I only worry you might be… susceptible.”

Genji took a deep breath.

“I am not. I only follow my instincts. I will not further pursue any kind of contact with the Cultist, believe me.” Saying that, Genji smirked, easy and relaxed, the flush disappearing from his face.

It was the truth, after all. He had every plan to be friends with Zenyatta –and Zenyatta was _not_ the Cultist, since that was a name the sentai had given him.

She narrowed her eyes, gauging his honesty, then made a show of shrugging. “Regardless, I do not wish to make you uncomfortable. What matters right now is analysing the Cultist’s orb.”

“Ah, well, yes, but I did mention that it would have been useless to come just for that,” Winston twisted around on his seat, wrinkling his nose. “I have yet to run the rest of my tests on it since uh, we have been rather busy these past few days.”

“With what, exactly? There was no recorded attack.”

“Well–”

“Excuse me for interrupting,” Athena’s voice broke through Winston’s fumbling, silencing him. She did not sound sorry at all. “But I think you might want to connect to the international news channel.”

Moira, Winston and Genji all had the same puzzled look on their faces as Athena changed one of her screens to it.

The news spokesman was an omnic with artificial hair that was one tone of metal lighter than the rest of his body, and at first, Genji did not understand what the big deal with the news was, as the man was talking about political parties, then–

“–and the leader of the Shambali, Tekhartha Mondatta, has announced in an unexpected press conference that he intends to travel for a pro-omnic speech outside of Nepal, for the first time in years. The Shambali have always been active, but recently, due to the increased amount of monster sightings, the authorities advised the leader not to stray too far from home. Mondatta spoke earlier today about his decision to continue his work to establish peaceful relationships with–”

Genji blinked in shock.

He knew why Athena had attracted their attention to this, and he felt a flutter in his chest at the thought.

“Did he just say–” Winston turned around towards Genji, who had to hastily hide the grin on his face. “Uh, but where is he going to–” Winston glanced over at Moira. “Athena, what city is he going to visit?”

“As it appears, he selected our city for his first trip.”

Genji’s lips, traitorous as they were, twitched upwards. He cleared his throat. “That sounds like good news to me.”

“That is rather imprudent.” Moira’s lips thinned. “He is quite important, and as far as I know, the area where his monastery resides has been strangely devoid of monster attacks… perhaps due to the altitude, we have no idea. Yet, he wishes to remove himself from such safety to further his agenda. I do not know whether to consider that careless… or brave.”

Scrambling to find an excuse, Genji cleared his throat.

“I think that to make sure he is perfectly safe, we should offer our aid to the Shambali, and perhaps an escort. We have to uphold the reputation of the sentai as protectors, and if we get a visitor so important, it will reflect badly on us if we slack off.”

Winston appeared startled by this, and looked away quickly, and Genji realised that he was attempting to restrain a chuckle, so he grinned.

When he glanced over at Moira, though, he found her staring at him, looking almost perplexed and perhaps a bit… impressed.

“That is a good judgement. Coming from you, it is impressive. Maybe I have formed a far too quick opinion of your character based solely on your past achievements. I am glad to see you have grasped something this subtle so quickly.”

Caught between feeling smug at having the perfect cover to approach the leader of the Shambali and taking offense at the implication that Moira considered him… not quite smart, Genji settled with rolling his eyes.

The news had given him the perfect opportunity to leave the room and he did so, catching Moira as she turned towards Winston. “You should approach the authorities so you can contact the Shambali directly, it is an opportunity we should not waste–”

Then, Moira’s voice got muffled by the door, but Genji did not care. He hurried through the corridors until he was a mere flash, wanting to get to Zenyatta’s room as soon as possible.

He did have to be wary of the two people Moira had taken with her, but neither appeared to be much to worry about, at least in Genji’s opinion. One was a young woman with an undercut and purple hair, the other was a tall man with no real distinctive features, but both had remained in their room, not willing to accompany Moira anywhere… and really, he could understand them.

He rushed down the corridor on the other side of the base, and tapped delicately on the door of Zenyatta’s room, though when he got no answer, he pushed the door open, mindful not to enter. “Zenyatta? Are you in–”

Zenyatta was sitting in a corner of the room, not on the bed or on a chair, but directly on the floor, in the small slot between one of the shelves and the bed, and was staring down at the tablet in his hands.

“Zenyatta? Is everything alright?” forgetting for a moment everything else, Genji took a hesitant step inside the room, closing the door behind his back.

He did freeze when Zenyatta looked up, the green of his optical receptors almost subdued.

“I got a call from my brother,” Zenyatta said. Genji nodded, smiling softly. “He said…” Zenyatta looked down again, and Genji took that as an invitation and moved to sit in front of him, mourning briefly the lack of space to slide at his side instead. “With you backing me up, he finally feels he can leave the monastery and travel here. Genji, I…”

“He’s coming to see you,” Genji felt some kind of nervous energy under his skin, but there was nowhere for it to go, and it made him antsy. “It’s been a long while, right?”

“Yes. It’s been almost two years since I have last seen him in person.” Zenyatta still did not look up.

“W–” Genji blinked. “Two?”

“I left the monastery and after that, it became difficult to properly find my way back, and with the growing number of monsters appearing at the time, it was deemed unsafe for him to travel too much.”

“It’s… it’s a long time. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t see my brother for that long.”

This seemed to distract Zenyatta from his weird mood, because he looked up, a sparkle of curiosity in his tone as he asked “you have a brother?”

“Ah, haha, yes, he’s older than me and a real grump. He is also a hero, but he’s been assigned to a city away from here, so I only see him every few months. We’re both really bad at catching up, too, but he said he’d visit after he found out what happened to me.”

“He must care for you a lot,” Zenyatta murmured. “My brother, Mondatta, he…” his synth glitched. “I have missed him so much, but I…”

“Zenyatta, he was ready to chew Jack’s head off just for daring to look your way. Are you really afraid he might react badly to you?”

“As I said, the Shambali are resistant, and my brother appears fine whenever we talk, but…” Zenyatta sighed, sounding still weary enough that Genji felt useless, unable to help him.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I am so used to seeing you so sure of yourself, and you always know just what to say whenever I feel bad, and yet…”

Zenyatta’s laughter was quiet, but heartfelt. “I have become rather good at keeping up a façade, have I not? I worry, just like you do, but it has helped me for these past months, to act as if I knew what I was doing. Even against Reaper.”

The mention of the masked person Zenyatta had met made Genji stiffen. “We’ll find out who he is. Winston plans to make Athena go through the database of monsters whenever Moira finally lets up her scrutiny to see if that name comes up.”

The change of subject appeared to be what Zenyatta had needed. “You think he might have been spotted and considered a monster, rather than a militant hero?”

“I don’t know. I met plenty heroic assholes before, sure as fuck wouldn’t count that out, but his name does not appear in the hero registry at all.”

“He knew what he was doing with the nanomachines. If he is like me, he did not know I was one, but he exerted a level of control I had never seen before. The idea of disassembling my entire body, allowing the nanomachines to fully separate all that is me…” Zenyatta shivered, hands clasping one another on his lap.

“It would scare me, as well. I don’t know how he did it, but I won’t let him come near you if I can. If you stay here…”

“He will not find me, I know. It is still unclear why he intended to destroy the Cultist. I have seen many actual monsters choose to fight over specific territories, but I have also seen heroes wish to defeat a monster for the fame it granted.” Zenyatta hummed. “What upsets me is…” he hesitated, falling silent.

He had been unable to help the omnic, and things were different now. Something else was up with the nanites, and with Moira around, the sentai rangers would be unable to check him fully; the extra nanites in his body were now under control, but… for how long?

“If you see the omnic again, tell me before leaving.” Genji’s voice as steely, and it startled Zenyatta enough that he looked up. How had Genji known he’d been thinking… “I know they’re still in your mind, Zenyatta. It’s obvious the idea that you could not help them weights on you, but… don’t go out alone. Between Moira and Reaper, we have to be more cautious.”

“… you are right, of course. I will monitor the situation, but I am not…” a sigh “… confident with meeting the turned omnic on my own. Not if their presence might trigger the same reaction in me.”

“Oh yeah. That’s also… yeah, not good.”

For a few moments, Zenyatta and Genji remained silence, lost in thought.

“… you know, you do not have to stay here with me.”

Genji looked up, startled and hurt. “You don’t want me here?”

“That’s not…” fumbling with his words, surprised at Genji’s rebuttal, Zenyatta shook his head. “You have a life that does not include me. I thought that with Angela gone, you would choose to be at her side. You do not have to stay.”

“You think I’d want to be the third wheel when Angela and Fareeha go on a date? Angela deserves her rest, she needs to relax, but butting in on her free time will only make her throw a book at my head.” Genji flashed him a smile. “Besides, I like you– I like spending time with you!” Genji’s eyes widened and he looked away, embarrassed by the brash way he’d spoken, worried that it would make Zenyatta think him weird, since they had only started to get to know each other recently.

Yet, Zenyatta was looking at him, head tilted to the side. “Angela… you and Angela are not a couple?”

That made Genji promptly forget his embarrassment. “What? No, she’s one of my friends but we don’t click romantically, and she’s been dating Fareeha for like… a year? And they’ve known each other longer than that, too.”

“Ah. Forgive me for assuming, then.”

“It’s fine, Jesse thought the same –when we first met, he thought I was trying to get between Fareeha and Angela… they’re adoptive siblings, Jesse is really close to her… and he didn’t like me because of that. Fareeha had to whack him on the head twice to make him realise he was just getting worried for nothing. But at least we became friends after that.”

“That is a rather amusing way of becoming friends.”

“Yeah, though I think starting out as sworn enemies is even better,” Genji flashed him a grin, impish and amused, and Zenyatta smiled back with a flicker of his own forehead array, tentacles wriggling on his face.

“The ending result, I agree, is the best part.”

***

Despite his best intentions, Genji was antsy.

In line with the other sentai, all of them standing tall and proud in line at the airport, Genji felt extremely conspicuous, aware of all the eyes looking their way.

It was not surprising to see the sentai rangers in plain sight, not at all; what was surprising was to see them waiting in the same place, looking like they were on official business, and the airport itself was full of guards and police in full garb patrolling the area.

The news of the Shambali leader travelling for the first time in over a year had been on every news channel for the past two days, so it was no surprise the airport was full of sympathizers and fans, and it made Genji’s heart feel a little more full to see families with kids and small banners welcoming the Shambali to the city.

There were high school kids, and a lot of adults, human and omnic followers with hopeful looks on their faces, and then there were people who seemed to be there just to snoop, but interested regardless.

With so many monster attacks, it was easy to forget that things between humans and omnics were still in progress, still not quite as good as they should be, and yet, moments like this… it made Genji’s work as a hero feel more meaningful.

“There’s a lot of people here today,” Hana murmured from the spot at his side. “Think we’ll have to deal with some attack?”

“There was only one monster this week, and Blue sentai got rid of it on his own. I think it’s more probable someone in the crowd will try something, but that’s why there’s the police and us here,” Genji murmured back.

Hana tilted her head, just a bit, but Genji could easily picture the cocky grin Hana hid under her mask. “You will not even need to raise one finger, playboy. I’ll get them myself, you just watch!”

“Feel free, Pink sentai. I will glue myself to Mondatta’s side and not leave him until we’re back at the hotel.” And that was exactly what Genji was planning to do.

Nothing would go wrong –not if he had a say in it.

Zenyatta and Mondatta had waited two long years to find one another again and Genji had every intention to make sure their reunion would go as planned.

“You’re such a softie,” Hana muttered back, but her tone was soft and warm, not teasing at all.

“Look who’s talking, I know you have checked the route from here to the hotel twice just this morning.”

“I wanted to make sure everything was fine. It’s quite an important babysitting job we have, today.” And though her words might have been badly interpreted otherwise, there was absolutely no sting in her voice, just determination to do her job.

“Just don’t let Winston or Moira hear you,” Genji told her, elbowing her side. “You wouldn’t like getting chewed out in front of so many of your fans.”

He pointed over to a group of people, all wearing plastic pink sentai masks, some of them with t-shirts with her logo and her costume face on it, and Hana inched back a little. It was easy for Genji to picture her blushing with pleased pride underneath.

From Genji’s other side, Lucio hummed. “Guys, guys, let’s keep the talkin’ to a minimum, the plane’s about to land.”

There was an undercurrent of anticipation travelling through the airport, and the sentai could feel it just as much as the rest of the crowd; the Shambali were famous, and beloved, and among them, Mondatta was their leader, respected and loved by the majority of people and omnic alike.

He was, in short, a celebrity, even if by what Zenyatta told Genji, not a truly willing one.

Mondatta had accepted the role because there was no one else, because he wished to see omnics be considered equals to humans, because he wished to offer everyone a better life. This belief had forced Mondatta to make certain choices, to become a public figure, to renounce to a lot of his privacy, of his life, for the cause.

Genji had not understood it until he’d picked up this job as a hero, and even then, it was not the same… at least Genji had a mask on when he patrolled the city, one he could take off whenever he needed a break. Mondatta did not have the same luxury.

Keeping his back straight, Genji turned towards the baggage exit of the airport, waiting to see the omnic appear.

“Remember, sentai,” Moira’s voice was like a bucket of cold water, reminding Genji and the other sentai that they were not alone there. “You need to be on your best behaviour. We have to uphold our reputation. Tekhartha Mondatta is not to be treated with too much confidence. We have to protect him and escort him to his speeches, not coddle him. I am sure you all understand.”

“Yes, yes,” Hana muttered. Genji knew she was rolling her eyes.

“Here he comes!” Lucio sounded excited, and Genji and Hana both turned to look.

Mondatta walked out of the baggage area slowly, trailing behind two bodyguards who appeared imposing and scary, dressed in black and with dark shades on their faces. He appeared at ease, hands intertwined behind his back, pace calm and measured, head held high, and Genji felt a flicker of awe at the sight, as in person Mondatta looked even more unapproachable, the kind of persona one would associate with important public figures. Dressed in immaculate clothes, he looked like he was more than a single omnic, more than just the symbol of equality that he was hailed to be.

If on television he looked cool and austere, in person, even from afar, he looked like so much _more_ , and Genji felt cowed at the sight.

“He looks so cool,” Hana whispered, only loud enough that Genji and Lucio could hear her.

Genji agreed, though he did not speak, and he wondered for the first time, if Zenyatta had donned similar clothes when he had been at the Shambali monastery. The two omnics who followed Mondatta had similar clothes, though not identical in style, and the colours were different, but their stance was a little more subdued than Mondatta’s. they still walked with their backs straight and head high, but it was just… different, somehow.

Much to Genji’s dismay, he realised this was the first time he had given a thought to what Zenyatta truly looked like, and the thought nagged at the back of his head even as he, Lucio and Hana remained standing, waiting for the two bodyguards on the front to reach them.

“In the name of the city council and the sentai force, we welcome you here, Tekhartha Mondatta. I am Moira O’Deorain.” Moira advanced past the two bodyguards with barely a glance, and stopped in front of Mondatta, who regarded her for a moment, then nodded.

“I thank you,” he answered, his voice almost too quiet in the noise around them. “I am grateful for the support the city has offered me in my endeavour, and for the generous offer of an escort during my stay in this city.”

Mondatta turned his head towards the sentai rangers and then nodded towards them, the tilt of his head more pronounced than before. “Thank you for your kindness, sentai rangers. I will try not to impose on you too much.”

“It is no imposition for us, Master Mondatta,” Genji stepped in front of his fellow sentai, conspicuously aware that without Winston there, he was the unofficial leader of the corps. “Allow me to say that your presence here honours us greatly.”

Moira was a mere spokesperson, after all Winston found it awkward to move around the city, considering his size and how much people tended to look and point at him as a novelty, but if she had not been there, Green sentai would have been the one appointed to speak for them.

Mondatta’s forehead array flickered briefly, his head tilted in what Genji assumed was a smile. “And I feel similarly to meet the city’s protectors,” he replied, and Genji understood the implications, which Mondatta would not speak of in public.

He offered the man a nod. “We only strive to do what is right.”

“Well then, we should depart, hence we gather… far too much attention, standing here.” Moira brushed past them, her lips curled in what passed as a warm smile.

Genji looked around; with so many people stretching their necks to get even a passing look at Mondatta, the airport baggage exit was packed, and more people seemed to be arriving from every corner, whispering and pointing, some flashing photos with their cameras and phones.

“We have transportation waiting for us outside, which will lead us to your hotel, Master Mondatta,” Genji motioned towards the exit with a nod towards Lucio, who moved to Mondatta’s side, while Hana shifted towards the other two omnics, who looked startled and almost flustered at her approach.

Genji went to the two bodyguards, who appeared somewhat uncomfortable. “Are you alright with giving your role to us?” he asked, feeling guilty.

It was true that the protection part was a honest attempt by the sentai, considering the high amount of monster appearances in the city, and normal humans would not suffice, but it was also a ploy to get Mondatta to a secure place where to stage a meeting between him and Zenyatta.

“Of course!” one of the men straightened his back, fumbling a bit. “The job is yours until Master Mondatta stays in the city, we have absolutely no problem.” A few seconds ticked by, and Genji remained unmoving, waiting, then the other guard elbowed the first in the side. “Can I… can I have your autograph? I’m… I’m a big fan.”

It startled a surprised laugh out of Genji, tension breaking as he finally understood the man’s attitude, and though the guard could not see it behind his visor, Genji flashed him a winning smile. “Certainly! I’ll have the entire corps sign for you, so when Master Mondatta comes back, I’ll give it to you.”

“Thank you!”

Both bodyguards were bigger than Genji was, taller and with broad chests and muscles, and yet they admired Genji –no, Green sentai– and it made Genji feel… good.

He knew things were difficult, and not everyone saw heroisms like the sentai ranger corps as something positive, stealing the spotlight from others, and many accused them of staging their interventions, or coming too late during an attack, but there were times when Genji felt like he did something right, if there were people who considered them actual heroes.

He left the two men behind to join the escort of Mondatta, while the police and the guards appointed to the airport tried to control the crowd, though there were certainly some who tried to follow Mondatta out.

Their transportation was a black car that the city council had deemed secure enough to host such an important personality as Mondatta, and though Genji had been offered his fair share of fancy lifts in the past, the comfortable plush seats of the black limo looked heavenly comfortable.

“Well, at least there was minimal hassle in leaving that place,” Moira murmured, sounding satisfied, as she opened the door for Mondatta to climb into the car, following him and sitting across him in the limo’s back.

Genji kept the door open for the two omnics, letting Hana sit next to them while Lucio and himself seated on each side of Mondatta, though inside the car there was little chance of anything happening.

“Allow me to introduce my companions, sentai,” Mondatta motioned for the two omnics sitting near Moira and Hana. “This is Yutta,” the omnic on the right, nearest Hana, nodded. They had a three-points array on their forehead, and no distinguishable eye-slits on their face. “And she is Vrishika.” The last omnic had a four-point array, and she offered the sentai around her a small wave. “There were quite a few volunteers to join me, but I was afraid to inconvenience you too much, so I only brought with me two companions. I hope it is not a problem.”

“Not at all, any Shambali members are welcome here. We follow your speeches on national television!” Hana tried to sound normal, but there was a certain excitement in her voice that could not be hidden or muffled, not even by her mask. “We’re all big fans.”

“I am glad to hear this. Also among us Shambali there are those who follow you, sentai, and the other heroes who protect the cities.” Mondatta smiled through his forehead array once again, and pointed at Vrishika. “She is quite your fan, Pink sentai.”

Vrishika jolted where she was seated, and much to Genji’s amusement, he realised she had been sitting almost frozen in place, back straight like a ramrod. “M-Master Mondatta!”

“Haha, that’s fine, I’m glad I count fans all over the world, and within your group as well!” Hana sounded honestly happy, the kind of bubbling pride that Genji had felt minutes earlier when the bodyguard had asked for their signature, and he smiled under his mask.

“Indeed, my brother is also quite a fan,” Mondatta continued, sounding very much pleased. “He has been following your endeavours closely, and he speaks quite favourably of you, Green sentai.”

The car suddenly felt a little bit too hot, and Genji shuffled, licking his lips. “Ah, that is…” he cleared his throat, looking everywhere except at Mondatta, feeling like he would betray everything in front of Moira if he dared to say anything. “I’m thankful to have a fan among the Shambali as well.”

“Curious that your group manages to follow the comings and goings of a particular group of heroes,” Moira interjected, though she did appear pleased. “But I should not be surprised, the amount of advertising the sentai rangers get is enough to spread around. The city is rather proud to have them protecting it.”

Surprisingly, the omnic called Vrishika spoke up instead of Mondatta, forgetting herself as she clapped her hands together. “It is true, but a bit of it is my fault. I have been following Pink sentai even before she became part of the rangers.” She turned to look at Hana, sounding a bit sheepish. “I was a fan since you were D.Va.”

Hana clapped her hands together, for a moment forgetting ‘propriety’, as Moira had demanded of them, to show her excitement. She had been rather famous before, but very few had managed to connect the disappearance of D.Va with the newly formed sentai group, especially because the PR team she had as D.Va was more spread out than the one the sentai team had.

“Nice to meet an old fan!”

“Vrishika, please–” Mondatta placed one hand on Vrishika’s shoulder, forehead array flickering in a smile. “Do not harass Pink sentai.”

Still, despite how cowed Vrishika looked, Hana managed to catch her gaze, motioning the universal sign for ‘later’ at her, which earned Hana a bright forehead array smile.

“I can see why she wished to join you on this journey, Master Mondatta,” Moira continued. Small talk was not quite a favoured pastime for her, but she could keep up polite interest, and it showed. “Why is your… brother… not the other companion, then? If he truly was as smitten with Green sentai as it sounds like.”

Genji stiffened again, thinking about Zenyatta back at the base, now free to roam a little since the only company left there was Winston, and looked away. He would not quite say that Zenyatta was smitten, though Genji still felt warm remembering the security in Zenyatta’s voice when he’d proclaimed he trusted Genji, both as himself and as Green sentai.

“Oh, unfortunately my brother does not reside at the monastery anymore. He took up on travelling over two years ago, and has been a wandering monk since then. He even visited this city at one point, which is what allowed him to become interested in the sentai’s work.”

Mondatta’s voice was steady, and Genji envied him for that. Nothing Mondatta was saying was a lie, either, but he was so completely at ease with everything that Genji could see how he had become quite the public spokesperson for the Shambali.

He truly had a knack for it.

Moira hummed. “Interesting. I was not aware we had a Shambali visiting in the past –not one of such importance.”

Mondatta sighed. “My brother, Zenyatta, does not quite appreciate the spotlight. He always preferred to stay back, and as such, respecting his choice, I never involved him in my public stunts. He prefers more personal interactions, which is what pushed him into leaving us when the monster attacks started happening. He wished to give his aid, and though he agreed with me staying at the monastery considering the kind of… importance my name carries these days, he had no similar problems.”

“Ah, a preference for a more direct action, I see.” Moira nodded, sounding appeased. “I admit I am not much into seeing matters personally, at least not on the battlefield, but I do agree that a… hands-on experience has its benefits. I do prefer having a degree of control over things I oversee.”

Genji thought about Zenyatta’s direct involvement with the sentai, his attempts to be heard, and then he thought about what Zenyatta had told him of his travels, of trying to bring some relief to people left insecure by the monsters attacking, of his attempts to find the turned monsters and send them where they could find help.

Zenyatta was truly someone who liked taking things in his own hands alright.

He was quite glad he was wearing a mask, since this way, Moira would not see him smile.


	17. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT NOTE PLEASE READ: due to a streak of depression and low mood that lasted this past month, i haven't been able to keep up with writing chapters ahead of time (+ zen week) so i'm taking next week off from updating to make sure im back to having one chapter ahead of time and to have a little more rest.
> 
> just next week then im back updating weekly, so i hope you don't mind ;n; thank you for your support!
> 
> (also it's zenyatta week! if you head over tumblr at zenyattaappreciationweek, you'll find lots of yumminess. the blog is not flagged nsfw, but if there's nsfw in it, it's properly tagged and under a read-more cut, so feel free to browse for all your zenyatta-centric needs!)

**Chapter 16**

Though there had been many hotels that had tried to get Tekhartha Mondatta of the Shambali to check in with them, the one the sentai rangers had picked for him was a simpler one.

It was still a high-end hotel, because despite Mondatta’s reassurances on the subject, they still considered him an important guest, but it was not the most luscious one the city had to offer, which was still good enough to appease the sentai and also the city council, but not too extravagant.

The exact choice had been kept a secret from the public to avoid crowd disturbance, but the security had been tightened around the area anyway, just in case.

Mondatta had been offered a suit on one of the top floors for himself and his two companions, and for once he had not protested; Genji knew it was because the suites were on a different floor from the other rooms, and that allowed Mondatta a degree of privacy he would not get otherwise, which meant he would be able to meet with Zenyatta without too much fuss, and as the suites had their own balconies, the sentai rangers would be able to come and go from there rather than using the front door of the hotel.

Moira did not seem to want to stick around after the first round of formalities, more at ease in a laboratory than as company to a renowned public figure, and to be fair, it was a relief for Genji –her presence made it harder for the sentai to talk with Mondatta freely– but at the same time, her leaving Mondatta’s side meant she would return to the base, forcing Zenyatta back to his room and into hiding.

Genji was also worried about the kind of pressure Moira was putting on Winston in order to get her hands on Zenyatta’s mala, and while it would be alright for her to analyse it while she was still at the sentai base, if she found it too interesting she would want to take it back with her.

It was tempting to stay at Mondatta’s side, but Genji wanted to also go back to the base and see Zenyatta, and his hesitation was so visible Lucio exhaled loudly and pushed him towards the balcony door, shaking his head.

“You go, man,” Lucio’s voice was amused as he patted him on the shoulder. “Remember, you’re the one who can… manage… well, you’re not needed here, alright? Master Mondatta is going to be okay, we’re just going to settle down and check his schedule for the speeches and set up everything.”

That did the trick –it was weirdly easy for Genji to forget he was the only one among the sentai rangers who could interact with Zenyatta for more than a couple minutes.

Trying to hide his glee, he nodded. “Moira, do you need…”

“No, it will be alright. I will take the normal route out of the hotel, and meet you back at the base on my own time. I have a few things to discuss with the hotel owners about security measures, and then I have to call back home to check how my team is doing, not to mention discuss with the city council about the speech. Please precede me.”

Feeling incredibly relieved to know he would not have to accompany Moira back to the base, sparing himself a very uncomfortable, awkward trip, Genji bowed to Mondatta.

“Once I make sure my patrol round is complete and the city is alright, I will be back and we will review the schedule to make sure everything is alright. Again, allow me to say your presence here makes us happy.”

Mondatta turned his face plate towards him, regarding him for a second, and then his forehead array flickered into a deeper shade of teal. “Likewise, your presence truly reassures me, sentai rangers.”

Mondatta and his two companions walked him to the balcony and watched as Genji jumped out of it, and if Genji took his sweet time and made his landing a little bit more acrobatic than normal, just to show off his abilities a bit in front of Zenyatta’s brother… well. No one would know.

With Mondatta’s arrival the sentai would have to work a little harder, but none of them minded, as things were definitely looking up; it was not just because a meeting between the two brothers would make Zenyatta happy, though Genji had no problem admitting it was _his_ main reason for doing this –it was also because as a high-profile personality, Mondatta brought with him a degree of publicity that would help the sentai force in the long run. Genji had heard Winston complain enough about how Moira’s squad was always a step ahead, and they would need this boost to keep the funding coming.

Genji was not stupid.

He was a hero, and he did his job because it made him happy, and because people were protected, and he liked feeling useful, feeling like he mattered, but Moira’s troops had a less casual approach, and considering they preferred to work in the shadows, most of the time their results were swifter. Winston had opted for a visually appealing look because he considered the morale boost of having visible heroes part of the job, and being popular would also help.

People felt reassured by a force that protected them where they could see them in action, and it made them feel like someone was doing something for them –and it made them wish to reach out and ask for help when needed, while at the same time recognizing they were on the job and refrain from hindering their patrols unless the sentai themselves were alright with approaching the public.

Moira’s group had simply a different work ethic, but that did not mean both could not exist at the same time. Their results hinged on secrecy, on having the citizens none the wiser about what went on behind the scenes.

There was nothing wrong with either way, though Genji knew he preferred the sentai force, and he knew the other sentai agreed with him –and Moira’s attitude did not help, not really.

Still, Genji had joined when the monsters had started to appear, but he knew that even if the monsters were finally defeated or sealed back to their own world, the sentai rangers would still continue to exist. Winston had been clear on that point –there was more to the rangers than just fighting monsters who were real monsters. There were still thieves, and humans and omnics with special powers that were used for evil, and as long as those existed, he would do his best so that the sentai would continue to exist, as well.

Which meant they did need the funding and popularity boost, either way.

It was a two-way street, and Genji understood that perfectly.

Feeling good for being recognised on the street for his work was just an extra boon for Genji, though it did help, and well…

People like Zenyatta were also why Genji felt a drive to do his best –people who relied on the sentai, who needed to feel safe, who deserved to be protected and helped out.

“Athena, I’m back.” Genji landed on one of the platforms on the higher floors of the base, and the polished, reflective surface of the wall in front of him parted to reveal a secret door, allowing him in.

“Welcome back, Genji,” Athena’s voice filtered to him from one of the speakers near the wall. “Hana called to let us know Moira would not return with you.”

“Yeah, so I got here faster since I did not have to match her speed.” Genji moved down the hallway, looking around. “Where’s –” he hesitated.

“Don’t worry Genji, Moira’s companions are both absent. They have left earlier this morning.”

That was an even greater relief. “So where’s Zenyatta?”

“Considering we were not expecting any of you back, with Moira and her croons out of the base–” Athena ignored Genji’s snort “–Winston thought it would be the perfect opportunity to run a few diagnostics on Zenyatta.”

“Ah, so they’re in the lab?”

“Maybe you should not join them, Genji.” Athena sounded hesitant.

“I might not get what Winston is doing, but I want to know what’s happening anyway.”

Athena hummed at that, but Genji could not understand her reticence until he arrived to the lab, pushing the door open.

Zenyatta was inside what looked like a glass container, cables splitting from the back of his neck and connected with one of Athena’s panels on the nearby wall. He looked unconscious, slumped on his side with his forehead array offline, the usual green glow underneath his tentacles and on his chest absent.

He was also missing an arm.

Genji felt a knot of panic bubble up from the depths of his chest, shock making him go completely still, and he could only manage a soft, strangled sound, one hand clenched so tightly on the edge of the doorframe his knuckles turned white.

“Ah, Genji! Welcome back!” Winston appeared from behind one of his huge computers, and Genji’s head snapped to him, only for his eyes to grow wide when he saw what Winston was holding in one of his big hands.

Zenyatta’s detached arm.

Genji fumbled backwards, white as a sheet, and bumped against the doorframe. The contact startled him enough that it pushed him into the room, stumbling towards the glass panel enclosing Zenyatta, eyes darting from his unconscious frame to Winston, who had the decency to look sheepish.

“Oh, uh. This. You see, ah… with Moira and her, uh, her companions away from the base, uh, Zenyatta thought it would be the right moment to–”

“You _cut off his arm!_ ” Genji found his voice again, though it sounded too strangled and high to be his own.

“–start some tests and no, Genji, I did not cut off his arm and…”Winston looked down at the arm he was holding, then back up at Genji. “Alright, I can understand this looks rather bad, but this was removed from Zenyatta’s shoulder painlessly and with careful, uh, I mean, we’ll put it back afterwards but I needed to test–”

“What your friend is trying to say, is that I have willingly allowed him to remove one of my arms to test a theory.” Zenyatta’s voice came through Athena’s speakers, and Genji’s head spun around to look at Zenyatta, finding him looking exactly like before, unresponsive and motionless.

“Zenyatta! Are you alright? This– this isn’t what you should do, you don’t have to let… Winston, I thought you would be less… less–” Genji scrambled towards the glass panel, placing one hand against it.

Zenyatta, abandoned like that, lifeless, almost d–

Genji felt a cold grip around his heart, and clenched his jaw, refusing to complete the thought.

With a soft, familiar ding, one of Zenyatta’s orbs floated towards him, surrounded in warm, golden light. It wrapped around Genji like an embrace, soothing him. Genji felt his heart slow down and realised he’d been breathing hard through his clenched teeth, fighting off a panic attack, one he had not even noticed he was experiencing.

He curled the hand against the glass pane into a fist to hide the way it was trembling.

Zenyatta spoke again, softer. “This is entirely painless, I assure you. Winston did not suggest this either –I did. I promise you, Genji, I am unhurt and this looks… worse than it is.”

“Oh, you can still control your orbs like this?” Winston’s tone shifted back to intense curiosity, ambling away from Genji and back towards the computer screen. “There’s no noticeable difference in the stats and the graph registers an increased brain-input activity, but not by much…”

“My conscience  uploaded to Athena’s mainframe has the same connection to my mala that I have while residing in my body, yes,” Zenyatta agreed. He sounded amused. “True self is without form. Is it not that whatever is _me_ exists, regardless of its shape? I am still myself, whether the appearance I take is that of a monster, or my AI is uploaded elsewhere. As long as I remain myself, my abilities are unchanged.”

“That is, uh. Very deep, yes,” Winston fumbled with the arm he was still holding, busy checking over something on the screen of his computer, and Genji was left behind, feeling helplessly lost and distantly hurt by the sight of Zenyatta’s motionless body. “But it also means that your peripheral control of the nanomachines that are part of your body… your actual body… still maintains a connection with, uh. Your true self?”

Zenyatta’s giggle echoed in the air, weirdly amplified and coming from more than one place, and Genji felt unsettled and elated at the same time at hearing it.

“You sound alright,” he muttered, wanting to address Zenyatta somehow but not wishing to look at his body. He looked eerie. Not alive.

“I am, Genji. I am deeply sorry for the unease the sight of my body has caused you, as it was not my intention. With your associate, Miss Moira, not present at the base, and the delicate situation with the extra nanites in my body, I thought it prudent to use this chance to run a few tests.”

“So when. Uh… when will you… return to…” Genji made a small, aborted motion towards Zenyatta’s body, still not looking at it.

“In a few minutes now, Genji. Please do not trouble yourself.”

“No, I’m–” Genji shook his head, brushing his fingers through his hair. It was silly to be uncomfortable by seeing Zenyatta like this, if Zenyatta himself said he was okay with it. “Forgive me.”

Again, Zenyatta’s laugh echoed in the air around him, and in response to that, the golden light of the orb seemed to intensify, just for a second.

“There is nothing to forgive. I am glad you have my comfort and safety in mind.”

Embarrassed and flustered, Genji looked over to Winston, feeling somewhat better when he realised he had yet to look up from his screen, giving them just a little bit of privacy and the illusion that he was not listening in, even if it was inevitable. “So uh. Winston… what is the meaning of…”

“Oh! The arm, yes.” Winston turned around, still uncomfortable, but a little less sheepish now that Genji seemed alright. “We are monitoring the signal between Zenyatta and, well, the nanomachines that are now part of his body. The added ones are, uh. Mixed with the rest in a way that makes them undistinguishable, but we will attempt to force a reaction in a suitably safe and controlled environment –though I fear we might have to try doing this at a later date, as Moira will come back soon and I think this is enough experimenting for today.”

Zenyatta made a soft, displeased noise.

“But!” and Winston seemed to get more animated, waving Zenyatta’s arm a little as he spoke, “We have discovered that the, hmmm, monster DNA that was added to Zenyatta’s body through the nanomachines has limitations.” Genji blinked, looking down at the arm, and understood. “Yes, exactly. This arm is… unchanged, as you see. Purple colour, dangling chain from the wrist… nothing different from the rest of your friend here, and yet… no bad feeling, nothing. Where does it end? What part of a mutated monster will instil fear in another person? Ah–” Winston caught himself, pushing his glasses back up his face “–that does not mean we are going to dissect your… yeah, no. But we needed to test the reach of the monster DNA imbued in the nanites. His orbs, ah, do not carry that, but they do have nanites in them, which is curious. It is perhaps because they are connected to Zenyatta, and yet are not part of what… makes him… _him_.”

Genji rubbed his temples. “And you had to… remove his arm for that?”

“Well, not necessarily but it was… uh. Quick?”

As he said that, Winston moved towards the case that contained Zenyatta. “There was another degree of the test, and that is. Well, connecting his consciousness to another AI mainframe, as you can see. Zenyatta is partly organic now, so we needed to test how much of him was still, well, omnic? And this is how we realised that if his conscious is not fully in his body, the nanomachines while still active, do not seem to irradiate that kind of… immediate negative aura that is specific to monsters. It is… well, not connected simply to the nanomachines, but to Zenyatta’s consciousness. To his AI core, that is.”

Genji blinked. “Wait, so you cut his arm while he was still con–”

“Genji, please.” Winston rubbed his face with one big hand, and Genji snorted. “Now I just have to…”

He pressed a small panel Genji had not seen on the side of the protective panel, which slid open, and Winston gently placed the arm inside before sealing the space between them and Zenyatta. “You can, uh. Return to your body now.”

“… that is alright.” Genji frowned, detecting the slightest hesitation, but then he watched as the screen with Athena’s symbol flicker, something passing by it in a flash, and then Zenyatta’s forehead array powered up.

His core started to glow, rhythmically, and then Zenyatta straightened up, instantly looking… alive, though he was still missing one arm. “My thanks,” he turned to look at Winston, who nodded. “We have already established that the degree of separation between myself and another person will not bear any ill feelings as long as there is a double-sided glass such as this one,” he told Genji, even as he casually shifted to pick up his discarded arm. “As you probably noticed already.”

Genji was barely listening.

He observed as Zenyatta gingerly placed the detached arm to his empty shoulder socket, and instead of reattaching it through some complex cable setup, the nanomachines simply swarmed to the spot, rebuilding the missing connections between the arm and the rest of his body.

Afterwards, Zenyatta clenched and unclenched his fingers before looking up to Genji. “… you did not listen, did you?”

“Ah–”

Zenyatta chuckled, the sound fond, and Genji felt his cheeks redden just a little bit. Yes, this was better than through Athena’s speakers, definitely. “I am sorry the sight of my missing arm troubled you so much. I promise, I will not consent to any more… disassembling, even if it does not hurt.”

“… thank you.” The heartfelt answer seemed to take both Zenyatta and Winston aback, and Winston cleared his throat.

“Yes, I am… not going to do that anymore. I think you can leave now, Zenyatta. It would be better not to be here when Moira comes back, and I will need to encrypt the tests and results and all the data I collected while you were connected to Athena, so that if Moira attempts to check on our database, she will not find them.”

“Thank you for this,” Zenyatta nodded at him, the glass panel sliding open so he could slip out, and Winston scratched the back of his neck, feeling the creeping awareness of Zenyatta’s monstrous side already building inside his chest, fighting against it.

“No, I… I’m the one who is, ah. Thankful, that is. We never had the proper chance to analyse how monsters work, and while you are definitely not one–” and Winston’s tone seemed to harden at that, as if daring anyone to contradict him “–you share some degree of closeness to them that will be immensely useful in order to understand this situation. I am grateful for your collaboration. We… not just the sentai force, but the entirety of our organization… we are going to make sure to use this data to solve the monster problem, once and for all.”

Genji remained quiet as they walked out of the lab room, despite Zenyatta glancing over at him as they moved to Zenyatta’s room, but he did stop in front of the door, hesitating.

He knew it was not his place to question Zenyatta, but he felt the need to reach out to him, make sure he was not hurt, that he was…

“Were you truly alright?”

Zenyatta paused, one hand hovering on the door handle. “I was,” he replied, but there was, once again, the smallest hesitation in his tone, and Genji bit down on his lower lip. “I have given my permission to the sentai force to do whatever test they think necessary in order to understand what is going on, Genji. I will not revoke that permission.”

“But it was not–” Genji ruffled his own hair, not knowing how to work what he felt. “You were not in your body _anymore_. Was it really alright?”

This time, the pause was longer, but it made Genji reassured, because it meant Zenyatta was actually considering the question.

“… it was…” again, a pause, a long one. Genji pointedly kept his gaze away from Zenyatta, afraid that any attention turned his way would make him clam up. “I did not quite enjoy loading my AI somewhere else. That body is… mine. The consciousness that exists within it is Tekhartha Zenyatta, but I am not yet at a point in my studies where I truly feel comfortable with being an existence transcending my own limited corporeal status, Genji. It was not… uncomfortable, but I would rather prefer not to do it anymore, unless I have to.”

Genji’s shoulders slumped in relief, appreciating Zenyatta’s trust. “I will make sure it’s not needed, Zenyatta. I am sorry.”

“It was still my own decision.”

Genji blinked, noticing Zenyatta was still unmoving. “If there was something else that made you uncomfortable, you can tell me. I will do my best to make sure it does not happen again.”

Zenyatta shook his head, and turned to look at him. There was no expression on his face, but Genji was almost certain he could tell, even without that, that Zenyatta was sad.

“While I was loaded together with Athena…” Zenyatta paused. “Winston did not feel any kind of aversion towards me. At all. For how unpleasant it felt to be disconnected from my body, I…” Genji’s heart ached as Zenyatta’s voice wavered, just a bit, “… it felt nice to be able to have a conversation with someone without them shrinking in fear.”

“… ah.” Genji found his voice coming out more like a croak, his mouth dry.

For a second, they remained standing there without talking, then Zenyatta seemed to straighten up, the lights on his forehead array burning brightly again. “Forgive me for the direction my thoughts chose to follow. I hope I have not soured your day. But I would like to know, now… how… how is my brother?”

Genji did not hesitate in telling him –anything, if he could keep Zenyatta happy, even if only for a moment.

***

“I am a bit… uncomfortable.”

Lucio turned around to look at Genji. They were both in their sentai attires, flanking Mondatta on both sides, so he could not see Genji’s face but by the tone of his voice, he could infer on what kind of expression he had.

“What for? Thought you liked stuff like this.”

“I mean…” Genji hesitated, and tilted his head to peek out of the door, catching sight of the people waiting outside. He winced. “Yeah but you know. This is a bit different.”

Lucio made an understanding noise. “Got you, friend. No need to get sudden stage fright though. You’re not the one who has to speak.”

The soft, undignified snort coming from Mondatta, a few steps ahead of them, made both Lucio and Genji freeze. “That is the truth, Green sentai,” he said, looking ahead. He appeared completely at ease. “You will simply need to stay by my side, no lengthy speeches required.”

Genji hitched his shoulders up a little bit, cheeks reddening in embarrassment under his helmet, and it was apparently obvious enough that Mondatta chuckled, his synth crackling in amusement. “Master Mondatta–”

“Forgive me for poking fun, but you remind me a lot of someone who was just as uncomfortable during public speeches.” Mondatta sighed, never turning to look at either sentai as he spoke. “There is no fault in wishing to avoid such things, and I am sorry if my presence here requires you to follow me in front of so many people and stand there.”

“No!” Genji took a step forwards, breaking protocol to reach Mondatta’s side, and the Shambali leader turned his head to look at him. “What you do, and having me there with you. That is not embarrassing, or uncomfortable. It’s…” Genji hesitated.

It would be one thing to whine with his fellow sentai, since they would understand, but Mondatta was not… this would be uncouth, and it was not his fault either, so Genji bit down on what he wanted to say and looked down, tense and unhappy.

Mondatta sighed. “Green sentai, I am perfectly aware of the true reason you are uncomfortable, and I know you do not wish to speak of it.” At Genji’s small, wondering noise, he chuckled, though the sound had not much amusement to it. “We both know your presence here is for mere appearances’ sake.”

This did catch both Genji and Lucio’s full attention, and Mondatta shook his head. “Do you think me blind to the way politicians work? I have to interact with them every day of my life due to my position as the Shambali leader.”

And that was the truth, Genji realised.

Mondatta would understand it far too well –that the sentai rangers being present and placed in full view of the newspapers and the cameras was a political move. They would not be able to do their jobs efficiently if they were told to look like little statues for the sake of a publicity stunt, and that was what stung Genji the most.

They had to be patrolling the area to make sure everybody would be protected, not… stand around like this.

The deep hum coming from Mondatta’s synth caught Genji’s attention again, making him straighten up. “I appreciate what you are doing. I am perfectly aware of what this city council looks for, and why you are by my side, rather than dispatched like the police and undercover guards we have met earlier. My presence here is a perfect opportunity for your council to show the validity of a hero group sponsored and paid for if something attacks. If nothing does, it is still good for them to be seen doing their best to protect me. I am aware of what my name means, Green sentai. I worked for it to be important enough that my message is recognized, even when it only brings discomfort to those with hatred in their hearts. The reason I exist is enough to show that omnics and humans still do not live on equal grounds, but protesting this would be taking a side that is not… popular. I can use that as well, and while I came here for my own selfish purposes… that does not mean this speech will be void of meaning. I do thank you for accepting to be here regardless of what this means for you.”

Genji slumped a bit, shaking his head. “it is not selfish to wish to reunite with your family,” he murmured, tone low but heartfelt. “And even if it was, you’re allowed to want that. Your work, your actions… nothing you do is ever selfish. You deserve to have something as well, and even then… you are not faking this speech, or brushing it off. And neither are we. We are here to do our job, even if it means we’ll have to stand there and look good –we’re still heroes, we still protect the city. If this stunt will let us continue to do so, then so be it. It’s worth it.”

Lucio moved forwards, patting Genji’s back. “And you’re not the only one thinkin’ like that, buddy. We have your back.” He offered Mondatta a thumbs up, casual and carefree, and Mondatta’s forehead array flickered in a smile. “And afterwards, we get to do yet another good thing for you, Master Mondatta. I don’t count any of this as a loss. We’re doing _great_.”

It had been hard for Genji to understand why he could not just lead Zenyatta to Mondatta right away, the moment Mondatta settled down at the hotel, and instead had to wait, but he’d accepted it, in the end –and seeing Zenyatta being eager but also calm, not rushing despite knowing his brother was in the same city especially to see him, helped curb his desire to rush things through.

He understood, rationally, why they had to wait; there was far too much attention on Mondatta now, knowing he’d just arrived in the city, and despite hiding from the public the name of the hotel, somehow the information had leaked so many were now picketing outside of the hotel, or tried to catch a glimpse of him in the hotel corridors.

If Zenyatta tried to approach him now that so many had yet to see Mondatta, even with his masking abilities, people would see him… it was too risky.

Waiting after his speech, justifying Mondatta’s absence for the next day or two after that with wanting to rest, forcing people to leave the premises of the hotel after having seen Mondatta give his speech in public… they would have better chance to play it safe.

Genji also understood that the speech, regardless of everything involved, was important –and that it happened now, after years since the last time Mondatta had left the monastery because of the monsters attacking, was even more important. Genji understood all of this, and the conjunction of Mondatta’s desire to meet his brother and feeling safe enough to travel, knowing someone trusted was going to help them… Genji was even more determined to do his job, so that next, Mondatta and Zenyatta could finally be able to meet.

Zenyatta was outside, masked and hidden on a balcony facing the square, far enough from the crowd that no one would feel his presence –he had wanted to be there, to catch a glimpse of his brother even from afar. Jesse and Hana were both in the crowd, one in his casual clothes and one in her sentai outfit with Vrishika and Yutta. Even Winston was there, monitoring everything from a room the council had prepared for him in the building in front of the square where the stage had been built.

Mondatta was waiting in the lobby of the same building with Genji and Lucio at his sides, peeking out towards the stage outside, waiting for the guards to signal it was time to go out.

Everything was ready, and still Genji felt tension spike within him.

“Master Mondatta,” a voice called out from the entrance of the building. One of the guards sent by the city council looked at them from outside, looking almost cowed. “It is time.”

Mondatta straightened his back, hands folding behind his back. “Thank you. I am ready.”

He walked out of the entrance of the building with a slow, even pace, hands locked behind himself, looking just as regal as he had been at the airport. Genji and Lucio exchanged a glance before following suit, senses sharp and stretched out for any possible danger, and flanked him as he walked across the street –the traffic had been stopped in the earlier morning specifically for this– and towards the open area where the stage had been equipped for Mondatta’s speech.

As they walked by, Genji kept glancing around, seeking out in the crows the familiar faces of Jesse and Hana, and much to his surprise, he noticed both Fareeha and Angela standing there as well in the middle of the crowd, and he was sure, though not completely so, that he’d also caught a glimpse of Lena; he could not see how tired Angela was, not from this distance, but Fareeha’s arm was around her shoulder, and they both followed Mondatta with their eyes as he walked towards the stage.

He had no idea if they were there to offer their aid in case something happened or if they’d just decided to come to Mondatta’s speech as supporters, but it still made Genji happy to see them both there nonetheless.

“Everything alright for now, Green sentai,” Winston’s voice echoed in Genji’s ear, his comm crackling slightly. “The perimeter is monitored and secure. Ahead, Moira is standing next to the councilman, and I just heard from Pink sentai. Proceed as agreed.”

The walk to the stage was short, but Genji remained vigil even then. The amount of people surrounding him, all those omnics and humans waiting for Mondatta to speak… all of them were here hoping for a better future. He just had to make sure they were all protected, as well.

There were cameras blinking, flashes bursting from across the crowd, and national television recording this event, and Genji straightened his back.

Mondatta advanced to the stage with practiced ease, and Genji wondered if he ever felt uncomfortable. He wondered if he could ask Zenyatta, and if Zenyatta would even answer, if it was something that someone like Genji could ever deserve to know. Mondatta had already treated him with more liberty than Genji, even as a sentai, deserved, a confidence he felt he did not deserve despite what he was doing for Mondatta’s brother.

It still made him feel good, like there was a connection there, and of course there was –it was Zenyatta.

Genji wanted to be his friend, wanted to be by his side for as long as he could, make him feel welcomed, safe, watch him be happy, and in this he knew he was only second to Mondatta himself.

Feeling his dragon rouse from deep within himself, Genji strengthened his resolve and followed Mondatta on the stage, stopping a few feet behind him as Mondatta moved to the front, unclasping his hands to lifted them above his head in a greeting to all those standing around him.

“To all of you who came here, and to all the ones who could not be here but are watching, I am grateful. We are all one within the Iris,” Mondatta said, his voice echoing in the abrupt silence that had enveloped the crowd when he’d climbed on the stage.

 


	18. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your kind messages last update! This chapter is a tiny bit longer than normal :) (next chapter there's finally the mon n zen meeting of our dreams btw)

**Chapter 17**

The moment Mondatta appeared on the stage, Zenyatta felt his core _ache_.

It had been two years since he’d seen his brother in person, and no matter how much comfort he received during their video-calls, it was just not the same thing.

Standing as far from the stage as he could, far enough that his aura would not disrupt the people crowding around Mondatta, Zenyatta watched his brother walk to the middle of the stage, and felt like a piece of himself he’d thought lost now back into place.

He walked with the same familiar, even pace, shoulders set straight and arms linked behind his back, and to any onlooker he would have appeared to be calm and dignified as always, the perfect public persona.

Zenyatta watched the swirls of Discord pool around him like thick wisps of smoke, speaking of fatigue, worry and longing, and knew it was his fault, and grieved.

Shutting off his optical receptors for a moment, Zenyatta centred himself against the pang of guilt, his core almost stuttering at the weight.

 _‘I am sorry, my brother,’_ he thought, forehead array dim.

Soon they would be able to meet, soon… he hoped he would be able to help dispel that painful discord, aid his brother and reassure him.

Mondatta’s voice floated to him as he started his speech, measured and secure, and Zenyatta sighed quietly, melancholy twisting inside him as his brother continued to talk, reaching out to the people in front of him and to the many who watched through camera lens.

Listening to him now was different than through a tablet’s speakers, closer, more real now than ever before. Zenyatta felt like he’d just tasted a little bit of home.

For a moment, Zenyatta wished to be back with him at the Shambali monastery, back to a less complicated time, one where they were together again, and safe, and the world was a little easier, even though he knew such wishes were empty and useless.

He was startled back to awareness with a jolt as something buzzed near him, and as his optical receptors snapped online, he felt an intense wave of Discord slam into his senses.

Anger, pain, almost agony, sharp and bitter, and so familiar Zenyatta felt cold all of sudden.

Where–

His attention snapped away from the stage and to the far right, optical receptors searching, seeking…

Zenyatta was sitting in a secluded balcony opening on the second floor of a building near the stage, where he could look down without being noticed, and as the building was otherwise unoccupied, he had no fear of anyone nearby to sense his aura and get spooked; the balcony ran through the entire front façade of the building, with a single window door in the middle, and Zenyatta was sitting towards the right side, just above the plaza where Mondatta’s speech was. He shuffled sideways down the balcony, making sure to keep out of view, and sent an orb to scan the area.

At first he could not pinpoint where the Discord was coming from, then the eye on his mala zoomed on a building on the other side of the plaza, and Zenyatta noticed the figure sitting on a windowsill, unmoving and as still as a statue.

Reaper was there, as unreadable as the first time he’d seen him, and a surge of panic filtered through his processes.

He expected Reaper to dive into the crowd below, who had not noticed his presence just as much as they had not seen Zenyatta, but Reaper did not move, though he seemed to be looking for something…

Or someone.

Zenyatta tensed, and hesitated for a single second before standing up on the balcony, making himself visible.

His movement had the desired effect, and Reaper turned to look at him, a spike of satisfaction filtering to Zenyatta’s senses.

The two did not move, both simply staring at one another, and Zenyatta wondered if he’d been right, if Reaper had been searching for _him_ , expecting him to appear at the speech for some reason… then, Reaper lifted one arm.

Zenyatta was still tense, mala spinning around him, ready to dart forwards to stop whatever Reaper would do, but much to his surprise, all Reaper did was extend his arm to his left, one finger lifted to point at something Zenyatta could not see.

It was not where Mondatta was talking, nor where the crowd was.

Reaper was pointing somewhere ahead, far into the distance, and Zenyatta risked a glance that way–

And abruptly, just as quickly as he’d appeared, Reaper vanished from sight, the onslaught of Discord fizzling out of his senses, leaving behind only their lasting impression.

Zenyatta hummed, deep in his synth, and risked glancing at Mondatta.

Nothing had changed, he was still talking, but now Zenyatta felt a wary tension travel through his circuits, making him feel antsy.

He had no idea what Reaper was planning, nor why he was gone now, or what his gesture had meant, but it felt ominous and even if it sounded like a trap, Zenyatta could not afford himself not to go look.

Zenyatta connected to the communication channel the sentai were using, having been authorized access earlier during the day. “Athena?”

“Is there a problem, Zenyatta?” she answered promptly, and Zenyatta sighed.

“I am not sure, but… I saw Reaper.”

“I’ll send someone right away–”

“No, he is gone now, but I need to check something, and I thought prudent to warn you about it.”

Athena hesitated, static flickering through the communication channel, and Zenyatta knew she was trying to think of a way to send reinforcements his way; unfortunately, the only ranger who could stand to be in his presence was Genji, and he was there on the stage, his aura so familiar by now to Zenyatta that he found it comforting.

“Just… I don’t think it is the best idea to leave,” Athena tried to reason with him.

“I agree, but Reaper knew where I was, and he chose not to engage. It is… suspicious. I need to make sure nothing is wrong.”

A sigh. “Please, Zenyatta–”

“I will be cautious, yes.”

Zenyatta slid down the balcony and kept as far from the crowd as he could; he had no idea what he was looking for, but he felt compelled to look nonetheless.

He could not presume to understand Reaper –the man was a mystery, and one he could not understand, and he was not certain about the outcome of another fight between them, but he could not dismiss it at the same time.

The streets surrounding the stage had been closed off to traffic, so only authorized personnel could drive around the block, so as Zenyatta walked away from the crowded area, he could see closed shops and parked vehicles, but no people.

So many had decided to go see Mondatta, and the thought sent a flutter of hope through his circuits.

All thoughts vanished from his mind the moment a spike of Discord rattled through him.

It was not Reaper’s deeply seated pain, but Zenyatta masked himself and followed the call of the Discord, moving quickly past an intersection and into what looked like a residential area, most buildings looking nice and well-kept. The streets were large enough, and there was a flower shop ahead of him and as Zenyatta moved past it, the Discord rippled through him again; as he turned the corner, he finally found the source.

The monster –but it was not a monster, it was someone who had been turned, as real ones did not have such Discord within them– was tall and vaguely humanoid, though his shape was a mix of canine and human, with slanted eyes and a big muzzle covered in brown fur. Despite appearing dog-like, the monster’s appearance was not friendly, a line of drool rolling down the monster’s gaping maw and fangs glinting under the sun.

Zenyatta hesitated for a single moment, thoughts about Reaper prominent on the front of his mind, then he pushed everything down and stepped forwards, releasing his masking so that the other would see him.

The monster heard him coming –or probably sniffed him, Zenyatta was not sure which senses had been affected by the change– and spun around, instantly on alert. Zenyatta lifted both hands in the air. “Please do not fret,” he started, keeping his synth to a soothing, soft tone. “I––”

He did not manage to finish his phrase.

The monster bolted –and not away from him but towards him, in what appeared like a desperate, frightened leap, fangs bared in a snarl. Zenyatta felt his Discord hit him like a brick, pulsating and pushing at his senses just as the dog-monster flew at him.

He avoided him only barely, moving backwards and watching the dog monster fall on all four in front of him, momentum making him stumble before he righted himself and spun on his heels to attack again.

“I do not wish to fight with you.” Zenyatta’s tone turned steely, hoping he would convince the other to stop.

“I don’t care!” the words were snarled out with no anger, just desperation, and it made Zenyatta falter.

Then he attacked again, claws bared, but Zenyatta parred the hit easily, sending the dog monster tumbling away from him, but a second later he was back on his feet and dashing towards him once more.

Zenyatta could feel… pain, desperation, fear… but none of it was directed at Zenyatta.

“I mean you no harm,” Zenyatta tried again. “Cease this fighting. I just wish to _talk_.”

“I don’t want to! I don’t care, I only have to fight you, and then I’ll–” his tongue lolled out of his maw before he visibly swallowed. “They said I only have to bring you down. That’s all I need to do! I don’t care about you! Don’t talk to me! Shut up!”

He attacked again.

Zenyatta evaded the attack and moved out of the way, brain frantically trying to put together all the pieces.

_‘They’._

Someone had sent him there to fight Zenyatta –fight _the Cultist_ – and it could only have been Reaper…

“I have no intention to fight you.” Zenyatta sent one of his mala towards the other monster, who flinched and stopped in his tracks, wary and afraid.

He was so scared of Zenyatta, of the Cultist, and yet still willing to fight him… why?

“If you won’t fight, that’s better for me! Just let yourself be hurt and I’ll– I’ll…” the dog monster faltered in his words, but as Zenyatta made no attempt to engage him, he seemed to find some resemblance of determination, and darted towards him again. “You don’t know _anything_!”

Faced with only two options –keep this farce up or stop the other monster before he harmed either of them– Zenyatta was not sure what to do. He had no intention to let the other continue, but if he allowed him to run out of steam, his screaming and reckless fighting would attract attention.

People would come.

As he avoided another hasty attack, the dog monster stumbling forwards and narrowly avoiding hitting a parked car, Zenyatta knew he truly had no option.

“Forgive me,” he murmured.

He did not use his orbs. Instead he waited until the dog monster threw himself at him again, fangs bared and claws unsheathed, snarling, and then he extended one arm, sharply, and hit him on the side, throwing him off balance; he acted quickly, familiar movements born of training and experience, following the movement of the other’s body with his own, using it to his own advantage, breaking the momentum to flip him around and slam him against the ground before he went down with him, using his own weight to keep him pinned.

The other monster thrashed around, his loud wailing mixed with harsh breathing, and Zenyatta pushed him down hard against the ground, concentrating as he brought his orbs around both of them, and–

Instead of a wave of Discord, he called forth Harmony, the golden light streaming from his mala, and pushed all that warmth into the dog monster.

There was struggle before the Harmony reached him, and the monster let out a scared screech but the moment the warmth pooled into him, the fear was washed out, soothed and replaced with something softer, dulling the Discord within him enough that it left the dog monster trembling and whimpering under him.

“W–”

“Will you listen, now?”

The monster whined again, deep in his throat, the sound almost breaking Zenyatta’s core, even as he kept wriggling under him, but thankfully, most of his energy had been sapped out of him and the Harmony helped, though Zenyatta could still feel his fear, so strong it almost burned through his circuits.

With a soft, artificial sigh, he closed himself off as much as he could, though from this distance, it was impossible for him to truly stop the flow of heavy, frantic emotions.

He would need to work on improving his own defences, but with so much to do, recently, and the fights with Reaper, and the nanites, and the sentai… he’d had so little time…

“I have to, I have–” disjointed and broken with yips and growls, the monster did not seem to be able to form a full sentence, but Zenyatta did not know if they had time. “I don’t want to go back!”

“Where?”

Zenyatta did not trust the monster not to attack him again, despite the amount of Harmony he was pouring into him, but keeping him pressed against the ground was not the best way to help him calm down, so he moved off of him, though still wary and tense.

The monster did not get up, he simply curled on himself, looking broken and battered.

“Where?” he asked again, softer, hoping he would have an answer this time.

“… with me.”

Startled, Zenyatta whipped his head to the side.

He had not heard Reaper come –and the worst part he had not _felt_ him come.

Reaper walked towards him, though he halted when he was a few feet away, looking calm and collected –expectant.

Zenyatta straightened his back, Discord pooling under the curve of his chassis, as if begging to be freed.

“What an unpleasant meeting,” he murmured, his tone low and clipped.

“Is it?” there was a sneer in Reaper’s voice that was far too noticeable. “I was offering you a boon… I thought you would enjoy the chance to get another… underling, if one appeared where you could find them.” A pause, and Reaper made a soft, displeased sound. “Unfortunately, he’s not a good one. He’s weak, and failed to do the one thing he was asked to do.”

Reaper cast a glance down at the dog monster, who seemed to freeze under the glare, even with one of Zenyatta’s orbs still on him.

“He was no match,” Zenyatta agreed, tone carefully even. “Yet it seems he would have a far better chance coming with me than he would going back with you.”

That startled a laugh out of Reaper –disbelief mixed with curiosity. “So you have no real interest in strong ones, hmm…” casual, sounding almost amused, Reaper crossed his arms in front of himself. “You seem not to care which monsters you pick –some strong ones, some weaker ones, and you let go others who would do well as underlings… it makes no sense. _You_ make no sense.”

“What makes sense in this world, if not personal convictions?” Zenyatta allowed his tone to tilt an octave lower, his synth rumbling slightly. “What I mean to do is something only I can understand, certainly not someone like you.”

He had no intentions to fight again, but if Reaper were to attack him he would have to protect himself and the dog monster, which was a possible liability in the situation, but Zenyatta had no intention to abandon him.

“You are a weird one. And here I thought it would be boring, now, when I know what you can do,” Reaper uncrossed his arms.

“If I bore you so,” Zenyatta replied, optical receptors never leaving the other, “you are free to leave. Yet, I will have to keep this one with me. Spoils of war, I am sure you understand.”

Reaper’s raspy laugh was a surprise for Zenyatta, but the abrupt way Reaper cut it out seemed to imply he was just as surprised of it himself.

“What is it that you want?” Reaper took a step forwards, and Zenyatta froze, the mala around his neck reacting to his spike of worry by activating around him, all burning purple. “You have yet to attack the city, yet there are… reports… of you facing other monsters. Even before your arrival here.” Zenyatta was startled to hear this, and Reaper chuckled again. “Oh, yes. We know how to do some… research.”

He knew what Reaper was doing, the attempt to destabilize him, and he stiffened again, forehead array dimming.

Zenyatta opened himself again, aware that just below the surface, Reaper’s pain would be almost overwhelming, and he faced the brunt of the first wave to prod further, deeper. His mala rippled slightly in strain, but he pushed, and pushed again, and felt–

Curiosity, for sure, and anger, enough anger to counterbalance the agony of his body, and…

Frustration, stronger than the anger, a soul caged and controlled, struggling and in pain.

“What it is that you _truly_ seek, yourself?” Zenyatta tilted his head to the side, forehead array and tentacles glowing almost ominously.

Reaper was a danger, and he was an enemy, and he did not work alone, though Zenyatta had only ever seen him as such, and he could not allow him to think Zenyatta was anything other than a monster, but he could at least force his hand.

“Power,” Reaper answered, toneless. “Isn’t that how it goes?”

“No, that is a lie,” Zenyatta replied, humming. He tilted his upper body forwards, tentacles wriggling. “You seek _freedom_.”

Reaper stiffened.

He looked frozen, not in the way a human would, but completely still, even his nanites momentarily quiet… if only for a second, but it was enough. Zenyatta had touched a sore wound.

Two could play the intimidation game.

“Why is it that you feel so trapped, Reaper?” Zenyatta took a small step forwards, abandoning the dog monster’s side. He knew he was playing with fire, but he could not allow himself to be weak when he had no idea what Reaper was seeking, who he was working with, why he was there and so interested in him. “Yet you still seek to trap _me_ , as well. Curious.”

“Shut. Up.”

The nanites bubbled over his body like boiling oil and Reaper’s fingers twitched, but Zenyatta had already moved away, two steps back, mala spinning around him.

Reaper seemed to collect himself, frame stabilizing, and then he straightened his back. When he spoke next, his voice had taken a darker, seething tone. “I see how that works. Amusing, but useless, Cultist. You have nothing on me, yet I have… a lot on you.”

Nanites surged up from around him, and Zenyatta allowed Discord to envelop his frame, cold and purple and licking at his chassis… yet, he had not expected Reaper to pull back, rather than attack. The nanites curled around the monster at his feet instead, wrapping his frame in dark tendrils.

The dog monster screeched, the sound so pained and afraid Zenyatta stuttered for a moment, already so wrapped up in Discord that he could feel the sharp spike of his fear, then he surged forwards with his own nanomachines, Discord welling up within them, and _pushed_.

Reaper let out a soft, pained grunt, jolting away from Zenyatta as if struck, and his nanites dropped like flies around the other monster, who gasped and managed to find enough strength to scramble away on all fours, stumbling and falling on the ground.

Zenyatta placed himself between him and Reaper.

“Heh,” Reaper’s laughter was too low to be amused, but there was something in his tone that Zenyatta did not like. “It almost feels like you care for this weakling.”

“Everyone has their own strengths.” Zenyatta hummed again, and the purple haze surrounding him thickened, enough that Reaper took another step back. “Now will you leave?”

“Not without my little pawn, no.”

“Then perhaps you should reconsider.”

“Or maybe you should have considered that I did not come here alone.”

“ _Hey there_ ~”

The new voice startled Zenyatta, but he did his best not to show it, even as he felt another presence flicker behind him. He had not felt her arrival at all, her emotions sedate in comparison to the dog monster and Reaper’s, but they’d just appeared all of sudden, just like her.

He did not turn around –it would be bad to give that much leeway to Reaper– but his orbs spun on their orbit, eyes blinking as they focused on the person behind him.

It was a human, with an elaborate mask paint on her face that hid her actual features, the base white against darker skin, with colourful splotches of pink and purple around the eyes, and white streaks of paint also on her shoulders and arms. Her hair was done in tall spikes, but the detail Zenyatta focused more on were the mechanical gloves she wore, which looked like a weapon of sorts.

“Sombra,” Reaper murmured, though there was no relief or appreciation in his tone, just disgruntled displeasure. “Took you long enough.”

“Well, I thought you would be able to handle this on your own but I guess…” Sombra trailed off, smirking under the face paint, “I should have known, since last time you returned looking like a kicked dog.”

“I am tired of you already.”

As he watched them banter, Zenyatta forced himself to keep calm –the danger had just increased, and he would have to be doubly wary now.

“So… this is him, hmmm?” Sombra’s eyes moved up and down Zenyatta’s frame, her tone even but her hands trembling. She did not move any closer. “Horrid, just like the others.”

“Yes, thank you for your commentary. Now either get the fuck away, or shut up and do something helpful for once.”

“Ugh, you’re always so demanding, especially when you need _help_ ~”

There was something peculiar in the way the two interacted, but Zenyatta was more intrigued by Sombra’s words, something that made him pause, and his forehead array flickered in surprise when he finally understood _what_.

She could feel Zenyatta’s aura, which excluded the possibility that she was like Zenyatta and Reaper, but she did not shy away from Reaper, which meant… Reaper was not like Zenyatta either.

Zenyatta had thought him a renegade hero or a vigilante at first, and then he’d thought that with his nanites, he could be like him –a turned monster– but if Sombra had singled Zenyatta out, so casually, so normally, then maybe…

Maybe it meant Reaper did not have a monstrous aura.

Yet, he had no trouble being around Zenyatta himself, which meant… what, exactly?

“Is there a chance we can do this quietly? I hate making a fuss,” Sombra cracked her knuckles, her eyes flickering from Zenyatta to the cowering dog monster. “Sorry buddy, we’re going to take both of you with us. Hope you don’t expect a five-star hotel where we’re going~” She pointed her gloved hand at the dog monster, and snapped her fingers. “You first.”

“No, no nonononono–” the monster scrambled backwards, but his frantic pleas abruptly cut off as fuchsia light enveloped his body, and he disappeared.

Zenyatta froze, body tingling as the emotions of the dog monsters disappeared, leaving behind nothing. He’d been teleported away, too quickly for him to be able to help, but if this was Sombra’s power, she would have used it already on Zenyatta, no need for Reaper to be there, so this meant it was probably some kind of tech trick instead.

“Too bad he was useless, but I had not expected him to do much. The experiment was still a success,” Sombra nodded to Reaper. “Let’s wrap this up now, yes?”

Both Reaper and Zenyatta moved at the same time.

Reaper advanced on him, hands snapping up as nanomachines buzzed to his fingers, forming the same guns Zenyatta had seen him use before, aiming them at his head; unfortunately for him, Zenyatta had already predicted this.

One of his orbs slammed into the side of Reaper’s gun, pushing it out of the way just as another hit him in the elbow, both guns diverted from their target so that Zenyatta could crouch and swing his leg under Reaper’s body.

Reaper cursed, but his lower half dissolved into nanites, avoiding the hit as he backed away.

Zenyatta turned towards Sombra. He had no idea if she could teleport him as well, or if she had powers, but she could feel his aura and he would use that against her.

He took a quick, menacing step towards her, the tentacles around his mouth wriggling, looking as imposing as he knew he could and strengthened the Discord wrapped around him. Sombra backed away from him instantly, shoulders slouching a bit as she attempted to look smaller; Zenyatta did not like to use this as his weapon but if she sided with Reaper, then she was no friend of his.

The fact that they kept talking in plural, hinting to something bigger and far larger than they were, made Zenyatta think that there was more to them, to Reaper, than what met the eye.

He sent an orb of Discord at Sombra, feeling her gasp and back away further, then turned around again, focusing most of his attention on Reaper.

“I feel certain lessons might need to be repeated,” he stated, his voice taking an amused tilt. “Perhaps another beating will teach you some manners.”

Reaper scoffed, body dissolving into nanites as he advanced on him. “You did not beat me, Cultist. I had you right where I wanted you. _That_ will be a performance I won’t mind repeating.”

“Oh, but you forget –I have a few aces up my sleeve.”

“As I do, as well.” Reaper growled at Sombra, displeased at the fact that he needed her help. “I wish I was not talking about you. Stop wasting my time, we need to go back.”

“Just ‘cause you can’t feel anything doesn’t mean I don’t, you _asshole_ –” Sombra was attempting to grab Zenyatta’s mala and push it away from her, the Discord it sent her clearly upsetting, but when Reaper spoke to her, she turned to look at them. “I will just have to deal with the root of the problem then, isn’t it?”

Zenyatta readied himself, not sure what to expect from her even as Sombra crouched on the ground, flexing her fingers, her gloves flickering with fuchsia speckles, then–

“ _¡Apagando las luces!_ ”

Light flared in front of him, and Zenyatta’s head exploded with red warnings.

As if a switch had been flicked off, his legs gave up under him and he fell down on the ground, his synth crackling in shock, his servos unresponsive all of sudden.

[ _Firewalls compromised, danger detected, unable to quarantine–_ ]

His auricular receptors buzzed loudly, making his head feel cottoned and dull, frame heavy and sluggish, his processors suddenly slow due to the warnings and lack of input he was receiving from the rest of his body.

What had–

“See? Easy. Don’t know what you were talking about. He went down like a sack of potatoes.” Sombra’s voice sounded far away, Zenyatta’s brain having a hard time focusing on it, and though she seemed smug, she still did not dare to move closer to him.

Her gloves were blinking steadily –some kind of signal broadcasting from them, the cause for his sudden crash.

A hacker.

Zenyatta tried to coordinate his body to stand up, but it was still not responding. He was trapped within it, frantic and unable to move.

“Shut up. Just be aware this is cheating.”

“You say that, but I’m the one who got him down on his knees, not you.” A small transparent visor fizzed to life in front of her. “Hmmm. Weird.”

Reaper, who had been about to advance towards Zenyatta, hesitated. “What.”

“Well, it’s like… most of his body is not… organic?” Sombra tried to take a hesitant step forwards, then froze, swallowing, and remained still, eyes wide behind the colourful paint. “Didn’t you notice? You fought him close range before.”

“As you said, I was _fighting_ him before. I had no time to consider these stupid things. What does it matter anyway?”

“It… doesn’t, in fact, but that would be a first for a monster…” Sombra hesitated, looking at Zenyatta with a speculative glint in her eyes.

He needed to move.

Zenyatta tried to recover access to most of his circuits, but he’d been hacked.

If this was Sombra’s power, it was meant to work on monsters too –and possibly humans, by her words. She had not expected him to be mechanic at all. They already knew too much, and he could not allow them to learn any more from him.

Yet he could not move.

His circuits, his servos, all of his body, even his nanomachines… he could not access any of it, could not stand, nor fight, nor–

Except.

His mala were all on the ground around him, but he could still access them, for some reason.

A single chance, but he had to focus–

Reaper advanced towards him, footsteps heavy on the concrete, guns dissolving back into nanites, claws stretched to grab him…

With all the energy he could spare, Zenyatta focused on his mala and sent a volley right into Reaper’s unsuspecting head.

There was no time to avoid the attack, and all five orbs hit him at once, sending Reaper flying into the air until he collided with a parking car, grunting in pain.

“How did this hap–” Sombra’s eyes widened when the remaining mala around Zenyatta’s frame spun and turned towards her.

Zenyatta could not move, despite how hard he tried to fight against the hacking, his body fizzling with static and fuchsia sparkles, auricular receptors still dulling every sound around him, but _he could still fight_.

He felt Discord mount from within him like a storm, worry and pain and panic all pushing together, raging at his mental barriers, so he redirected all of it out of his body, his mala dripping violet miasma, and he sent them towards Sombra.

She scrambled back, scared to end up like Reaper, but Zenyatta had no intention to actually hit her –not that he needed to.

The Discord enveloped her and she fell on the ground, her breath coming out in small, pained wheezes, backing away from him, giving him a wide berth. Not enough –Reaper was already struggling back to his feet, enraged and furious.

Zenyatta sent the rest of his mala towards him, Discord bubbling from them like poison.

He needed them to stay away from him as he worked on recovering control of his body, so Zenyatta let the Discord flow freely, pouring more into his mala without pausing.

The Discord bubbled around him, keeping him safe, keeping both Reaper and Sombra at a distance, forcing them to stay away, unable to move any closer to him or risk getting trapped within the painful tendrils.

Zenyatta wrapped the Discord tighter around his frame, cold and dark, and darker still, tugged at that well inside him but reined control of it, not willing to let the Discord destroy their minds, pushing but restraining, and continued to try and get his circuits to answer him, forcing himself to move, to do anything, to–

From within him, something _shifted_ , and his control over the Discord faltered.

“Sombra–” Reaper felt the assault lessen and hissed, rough edges and anger bubbling under the surface, “ _Didn’t you say you’d disabled his nanites_?”

“O-of course I did–”

Their voices faded into the background as Zenyatta’s body vibrated and hummed, his attention focusing on the nanites within him, suddenly active… but they were not his own, still caught in Sombra’s hacking.

These were the ones he’d absorbed from Genji.

In a split second, Zenyatta realised what was happening, and his circuits froze as panic bubbled inside of him, almost enough to make his grip on Discord vanish.

The nanites were not under his control, but they had somehow realised that the rest of Zenyatta’s body was not protected anymore, and chose this moment to surge up, and Zenyatta felt them attack his ports from the inside, engaging his unresponsive nanites.

[ _No._ ]

His frantic attempts to stop them did nothing; he tried to move, forcing his protocols to reroute and stop the assault, but there were no firewalls, everything disabled by the hacking, leaving him completely vulnerable–

A sudden burst of current within his chassis, and Zenyatta watched another red alert flash past his vision, telling him that a part of his system was now compromised, the percentages of nanites in his body decreasing.

First one, then five, then ten, then–

Attention divided, Zenyatta did not notice Reaper coming closer, using his moment of distraction, reaching out to grab his shoulder…

“N–” Zenyatta’s synth crackled, and the nanites surged up from his frame, enveloping Reaper’s hand.

Reaper’s head snapped back and he grunted, then his body gave a jolt as the processes of Zenyatta’s nanomachines connected with Reaper’s ones.

Reaper’s grunt turned into a low, pained hiss and he tried without avail to tug his hand away, only to see and _feel_ the nanites disassemble around his fingers, making his hand melt, the nanites mixing with Zenyatta’s ones.

“What are you doing–” Reaper shoved Zenyatta away with his free hand, but more nanites surged up from his frame to attach themselves on his other arm.

Zenyatta felt Reaper’s panic well up inside him, deep through their connected nanites and even more by the Discord he could feel, but he had no reassurance to offer with his body faltering under the assault of the nanomachines, not his own but eating away at him just the same.

“Sombra –is this _your fault_?!”

“I– I didn’t do anything! I have no idea what’s happening! I thought the hacking had gotten him completely under control!” sounding frantic and far away, Sombra pulled up her display again. “The hacking shouldn’t do something like this either, I don’t understand but–” her gloves flickered and dimmed, and Zenyatta felt something inside him click, and–

[ _Connection re-established._ ]

–Zenyatta was back in control.

Inside him, the thrumming of the foreign nanites grew and grew, trying to take over of his body before he could push them back again, and Reaper’s presence was still there, aggressive and in pain, blurring Zenyatta’s brain processes through the Discord he could feel coming from him, and Zenyatta found himself in the middle of it like a lost, little boat in a storm.

For that second, he found himself wavering, afraid he would not be strong enough to push through.

His processes rearranged, firewalls reconnected with a snap, his chassis vibrating under the strain as his servos tensed, his limbs responding once more, and Zenyatta found the Discord wrapped around him colder still, steering him, tugging him deeper inside himself, and Zenyatta went, his consciousness plunging within, reaching out again, optical receptors shutting down, past the Discord, through it, and–

Zenyatta transcended.

The Iris exploded around him and he let it envelop him completely, abandoning himself to its embrace, relief filling him.

The nanites faltered, just like they had before during his past Transcendence, and Zenyatta’s thoughts zeroed on that, an idea passing through his brain. He had no other option and he could not hold this state forever, so while he had no idea if it would work, he had to try. Concentrate using his transcendent state, and…

He ignored the way Reaper screamed in contact with the Iris, he could not focus on that when he had to go deeper, find a way to stop the nanites, but he did feel them lessen their grip on Reaper, who stumbled away from him, panting hard.

Zenyatta hummed, deep into his chest, his synth vibrating with the note as the Iris swirled golden around him.

He could feel Sombra and Reaper’s hearts beating, and their blood rushing through them, and the spike of their emotions as they looked at him, fear and awe and fright–

He felt the familiar flow of the nanites belonging to him, and the foreign entity living inside them like a black, malignant presence, a hole he could not parse as monsters had no place within the Iris, alien to it. He felt Reaper’s nanites, incomplete and always hungry, eating themselves in their frantic need to sate this hunger.

 _There_ –the nanomachines that did not belong to either of them. He could feel their drive, built  similarly to Reaper’s ones but different at the same time, where Reaper’s nanites could only seek out the same kind, the ones he had inside him did not discriminate, could attack anything, everything, in their hunger, seeking to absorb and grow…

Zenyatta’s processors, sensitivity heightened by Transcending, felt the connection, felt the enemy nanomachines rebel, _consume_ –and his own nanites surged up, the Iris burning cold, and severed it, snuffing it out like a candle in a storm.

The Iris left him suddenly, contact severed almost like a slap, and Zenyatta felt his body drop from where he’d been hovering and into the ground, aching and burning, the sudden return to his normal consciousness a jarring sensation.

He’d stretched his Transcendence as far as he could and then a little longer, just so he could find the source of the problem, but his body felt stretched thin now, exhausted, and yet…

This time, he’d retained the knowledge of how the extra nanomachines felt, and though they were subdued now, calmer, he would be able to find them in the sea of the other nanites that he controlled. He could single them out at a later time.

Sounds filtered through him again and he lifted his head only to find Reaper crouched on the ground and not too far from him, shaking, his hands reforming into fingers, but slowly, so slowly…

Forcing himself to stand, Zenyatta attempted, and somehow managed, to appear unaffected.

Through the strain of his body, he squared his shoulders, his mala surrounding him protectively, and took a step towards Reaper. “As I said,” he murmured, keeping his voice low not to betray the way it would break if he spoke louder, “I do not believe you know everything about me.”

He expected Reaper to retaliate, but he did not.

In fact, he did not appear to have listened at all, curled on himself, panting hard, and when Zenyatta dared to open up, the Discord burning through Reaper surprised him in its absence –there was much less pain there. The Iris had been close to him, too close for Reaper to pull away.

Zenyatta took another slow step forwards, but this finally caught Reaper’s attention and he tensed up.

“Stay away from me,” he growled, voice rumbling through his chest, low and aggressive. “Stay. _Away_.”

Sombra moved to stand, eyeing Zenyatta warily, though her painted face masked well her features and expressions but her motion was halted when Reaper melted into the ground, his body dissolving into shadows and nanomachines.

“Reaper? Where the hell –where are you going? You can’t leave me alone here?!”

No answer.

Zenyatta had lost sight of Reaper as well, gone from his senses as before.

He turned to look at Sombra, tilting his head, and she backed away from him hastily, raising both hands in front of her in a placating gesture.

“Hey, hey, now, let’s not be hasty… no… bad blood between us, is there? Hahaa… ha… Reaper, _stupid idiot_ –” Sombra took another step back. “Guess there’s no chance we can put all of this behind us, right…? I guess now. Well, forget this shit, I’m out of here–”

She hastily pressed something at the base of her glove, her body flickering, and teleported away.

Zenyatta did not move for a few more long, painful seconds, senses stretched thin. Then he dropped on the ground in relief, tension leaving his body as his knees hit the street with a dull thud, his mala dropping down around him.

Once again, somehow, he had been lucky.


	19. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your continued following, the kudos and the reviews, you always make my week!
> 
> This chapter is sweet, and you can consider it a pit-stop from the action so you can take a break, rest and restock before going on with your adventure :D

**Chapter 18**

Genji’s eyes moved over the crowd of people in front of him.

The speech had ended, followed not by a roaring applause but by a comforting silence, as Mondatta had asked the people to reflect upon his words, and much to the surprise of most of the policemen stationed around the area, they had complied, humans and omnics alike united under Mondatta’s guiding presence.

It had been… something else, to be part of the speech rather than watch one on the television.

Slowly, the crowd was led away from the stage, freeing a path for Mondatta to descend from it, flanked by Genji, Lucio and Hana who had moved to join them.

Their sentai attire would be enough to discourage anyone pushing for a personal meeting with Mondatta, they were sure of it.

Genji felt restless, just a bit. He had done nothing during the entire speech, simply standing at Mondatta’s side, like the useless little statue he had to be, so there was nothing to explain why he was tired, and yet…

His body felt incredibly tense, all his muscles wired up and expecting some kind of blow that did not come, anxiousness vibrating under his skin, making him almost jumpy as he led Mondatta down the stage.

Everything had gone well, nothing seemed to be off, and Winston kept up a small commentary through the speech to keep Genji informed of everything that was going on around the area. A few pickpockets had been stopped before they could do more than bump into people, an elderly lady had felt faint and had to be walked out… normal, routine things.

A few dignitaries from the City council made their way towards Mondatta, and Genji barely refrained from groaning at their sight.

They exchanged pleasantries with Mondatta, seemingly besotted with the omnic, showering him with praise and receiving some well-delivered compliments back about the city, Mondatta keeping a distant yet warm aura with them, until they turned to Genji.

“Green sentai,” one of the councilmen addressed him, pompous in attitude and tone, “we are thankful for your help today, though… well, I guess it is rather disappointing you could not properly demonstrate the skills that make your squad the city’s source of pride, huh?”

Genji kept his body language relaxed, not wanting to betray his annoyance, more than grateful for the fact that his helmet hid the displeased curl of his lips.

“It was an honour to be here, though I’m quite glad no monster appeared. The rangers are capable enough so that no danger would befall on the crowd nor on Master Mondatta, but it would have been disappointing to have to interrupt his speech in order to evacuate the area.”

The councilmen seemed startled at that, but Mondatta chuckled amiably, smoothly intervening in the conversation. “You hold me in such high regard, Green sentai, yet I would have been unable to proceed as smoothly without the certainty that I was well protected today.” The two councilmen preened at his words. “Yet, I find myself rather tired. It has been a while since I was able to leave my monastery, and I have to say, I might not be as used to that as I was years ago. My servos are not as new anymore, you see. I hope it is not too much if I ask for a ride back to the hotel for some time to rest.”

The councilmen reacted promptly, hurrying to say their goodbyes and leaving Mondatta and his protection team free to continue on their way out. They had received more than enough attention from the press and the positive advertising, and pacified as they were, they wanted Mondatta to feel welcome and taken care of. They passed by Moira as well, and Genji nodded at her, but she seemed otherwise preoccupied, her eyes flashing over the remaining crowd, as if searching for something, or someone.

“Oh boy,” Genji muttered, eyes searching across the sea of departing people to see if Angela and Fareeha were already gone, “I hope she didn’t notice them.”

Hana left them to recover Vrishika and Yutta, and Lucio paged the car to come and retrieve them.

“I think it went pretty well,” Lucio piped up, uncomfortable with the silence. “I haven’t seen so many happy faces in a bit, even with us around doing our jobs.”

“What can you expect? Master Mondatta is a celebrity,” Genji felt a small surge of pride, half of it for Zenyatta, the other for the hard work Mondatta was doing for omnic rights.

“Well now, celebrity is somewhat excessive,” Mondatta’s forehead array flashed in mirth, but he sounded distracted now, and Genji felt a sliver of worry.

“About what you said earlier…” when Mondatta turned to look at him, Genji swallowed, uncertain about how to address the topic. “The speech was long and you had to stand during the entire time. If you need to sit while we wait for the car, then–”

His fumbling was halted by Mondatta’s laughter, vibrant and heartfelt, surprising enough that both Lucio and Genji stared at him, eyes wide beneath their visors.

“Forgive me, I did not mean to deceive you so. I simply wished to leave –all I can think about now is my brother, and I had no patience left for empty words of praise. Those men have filled my processors with their inane banter all morning, and I did not wish for a repeat when something far more important is waiting for me.”

“… oh.” Genji felt foolish for his worry, cheeks dusted in red.

“Please do not worry about my health. I keep this body in as perfect condition as I can, and though I might not be as skilled as my brother is, due to his travelling and constant training… I am perfectly capable to protect myself, if needed be.”

Genji’s eyes widened behind his visor. Though he should have expected this –Zenyatta had mentioned how the Shambali were trained in self-defense– the idea of someone like Mondatta being able to fight was… difficult to imagine. “That’s impressive,” he found himself saying instead, feeling even more embarrassed about himself than before, though all Mondatta did was chuckle again.

He couldn’t help but think that he and Zenyatta had quite a similar laugh.

That made Genji pause, his attention moving from the speech to Zenyatta, and as Hana and Mondatta’s companions joined them and the driver stopped the car in front of them, allowing them to finally get away from the staring crowd, Genji could not stop his thoughts from wandering again.

The car moved easily through the streets, leading them back to Mondatta’s hotel, and it was only halfway there that Genji found enough courage to ask what had been on his mind for the past twenty minutes.

“Master Mondatta?”

Mondatta turned away from the window –slightly tinted so he could look outside but people on the street would not see him– to look at him, head tilted in curiosity. “Yes, Green sentai?”

Somehow, both Lucio and Hana seemed to notice something because they stopped talking to turn to look at him, just as expectant to see what he would say, but he tried to ignore them –there was nothing wrong with what he wanted to ask. Nothing. Not at all.

“I was… uh, curious about something.”

Mondatta hummed. “You mean to ask about Zenyatta?”

Stumbling a bit, Genji nodded, cheeks burning. He could have been about to ask about anything, really, yet Mondatta had guessed right away.

“Are you curious about his past with us?” Mondatta’s forehead array flared up, either in amusement or in warning, Genji was not sure.

“No. I mean, yes but… well. I can ask Zenyatta himself about that,” Genji tried to scratch his face, then remembered he had a mask on, hands hovering in the air for a second before flopping down on his lap. “I just… before you got there, I never thought about Zenyatta’s past, because… well, because I was learning about him in the present… if it makes sense? But you got here and it made me wonder about…” a small hesitation. “How did he look before he was transformed.”

Mondatta’s head made a small motion in surprise. “Ah, that is right. You have never seen him as he was before, and he would not have anything to show either…” Mondatta rummaged in his kasaya, and Genji leaned forwards, just a little, when he took out a small folded envelope from the inside of his clothes. “I brought these with me for this purpose,” Mondatta hummed, sounding rather pleased for some reason. “I thought it would do him good to have something of us to keep on himself, since I will not be able to stay too long in this city… and among the photos there are a few of him as well. Do you wish to see, sentai?”

Though he addressed all three of them, Genji felt oddly singled out, but the embarrassment lost against his curiosity, so he nodded. “I am interested about who Zenyatta was before all of this happened to him.”

Mondatta unfolded the envelope, and Genji dared to glance down at the pile of photos on his lap, though most of them were twisted sideways.

The first few on top were pictures of the monastery, and looked rather beautiful –one was a view of a snow-filled landscape, and it made Genji feel some sort of longing he could not explain– and Mondatta carefully shuffled through them, nimble fingers sorting through the pile until he made a soft sound of recognition, and picking up one of the pictures, he handed it to Genji.

“Here,” he told him, and Genji tried not to look too impatient as he grabbed the photo and turned it around.

He did not know what he’d expected to see –perhaps a model similar to Mondatta himself, polished white and austere, or maybe someone more like the omnics he saw around the city, three-points array and bulkier frames, dark dull metal…

Instead he found himself staring into a picture of an omnic holding a big, fat cat in his arms, dressed in a light pink Shambali attire pooling around his crouched body. His face plate was curved and rounded, softer edges than Mondatta’s, and it made him look almost young, with slanted eyes that gave the face a gentle, mellow look, and a nine-point array on his forehead, the same colour as Mondatta’s but in a square shape rather than a diamond one.

In the photo, Zenyatta was not looking at the camera but at the cat, and although omnics had no expression, Genji could see in the way his hands held the cat close, the tilt of his head, his shoulders slightly hitched up, that he was happy.

Genji tried to compare what he was seeing with Zenyatta the Cultist, and he found it difficult –there was little of this Zenyatta in the one he’d met. Even the orbs floating around him looked different.

Yet…

This was Zenyatta, as he had been before the nanomachines, before the monsters. A time when he’d been happy and carefree and still home, and…

“He looked really cute,” he murmured, too caught up in staring to realise what he’d just blurted out.

A loud snort coming from his left startled him out of his staring, and then his brain caught up with his words and he felt his cheeks burn crimson in embarrassment, fingers crinkling the sides of the photo in his hands.

His head shot up, only to see Mondatta, Vrishika and Yutta all staring at him, and he realised that with his words he’d just implied that Zenyatta was not cute anymore, and that perhaps Mondatta would find it an insult because they were brothers, and Genji scrambled for words, panicking and fumbling with himself.

“Ah– I mean!” at his side, Hana doubled over, unable to hide her giggling no matter how hard she tried to, and even Lucio’s shoulders were shaking in mirth. “Not that he isn’t cute now! I mean, maybe not his appearance but Zenyatta is really cute! I mean… _shit_ –” feeling even more embarrassed, Genji groaned and hid his face in both hands, hoping that a monster would appear and rip him out of the car so he could end his life in a dignified way.

“Oh, oh-ho-ho, man, I would pay to see your face now,” Lucio patted his shoulder in what felt like a pitying gesture.

“I always knew you had that type you know, wriggling tentacles and dark aura but a gentle soft soul within~” Hana managed to gasp at him, still cackling, and Genji, mortified, considered whether it would pay off to open the car door and jump out.

He knew she would find a way to poke fun at him forever now, he just… knew.

Mondatta’s forehead array flickered in silent laughter, but he managed to keep quiet and instead leaned forwards to tap two fingers, very gently, against Genji’s knee. “Please, I understand what you meant.”

Still flustered, mortified and embarrassed, Genji could only push his back into the seat and look out of the car window, face burning hot and heart fluttering wildly.

Hana was still giggling in her seat, and Lucio looked away, shoulders shaking, and in order to nurse his wounded pride and ignore them, Genji cleared his throat and contacted Athena instead, hoping she had not listened in.

“We’re approaching Mondatta’s hotel,” he stated, cheeks still burning hot and sounding perhaps a touch pouty. “Has Zenyatta arrived already? Also, Moira is not with us, but hopefully Winston will keep her busy for a little longer.”

“Ah… no, Zenyatta might be… late.”

And just like that, Genji’s embarrassment was flushed out of his body, replaced by a sudden wave of dread. “Athena?”

Lucio and Hana straightened, and even Mondatta seemed to catch on the mood shift, because he tensed.

“Zenyatta spotted Reaper in the area, and chose to investigate.”

The dread intensified.

“W-why did he go on his own? Athena?”

“Backup would not work for him,” and there was an apologetic tone to her voice now. “Don’t worry –he contacted me a few minutes ago and is unharmed, but it might take him a little longer to get back to the hotel.”

Genji’s hands gripped the seat, forcing himself to calm down. “What happened?”

“Reaper attacked him–”

“ _Athena!_ ”

“–but as I said, he came out of it unscathed. He is simply running low on energy. There was someone else with Reaper, but she did not seem extremely aggressive, and once Reaper left, she chose to disappear as well. Non-confrontational, as it seems, but dangerous nonetheless. I have attempted to run a picture of her through our database, but there is no facial recognition available. She is an incognita.”

Genji bit down on his lower lip enough to hurt, forcing himself to focus.

He would need to talk with Zenyatta –what his teammates told him was just as valid for Zenyatta, though it seemed he felt it did not apply. He could not run off on his own.

“Is there a problem, sentai?” Mondatta’s voice called him back from his train of thoughts, and with a jolt he realised the three omnics were the only ones who did not hear Athena.

Genji found the intensity of Mondatta’s focus unnerving, but he understood just how worried Mondatta was about his brother, so close to finally seeing him again. He relayed the information, watching the way his shoulders seemed to slump a little, a mix of relief and wariness evident in the way he leaned back and away from Genji.

“Master Mondatta often said that Zenyatta would make his hair go grey in his early years, if he’d been born human,” Vrishika interjected.

It was possibly an attempt to lighten the mood, and it did work because Mondatta snorted, the sound so undignified it was almost surprising, and it startled a snort from Hana and Genji both.

“Thankfully, I do not have hair to pull either, or I would have gone bald as well,” Mondatta added, shaking his head. “I do not know why I am so surprised he would chase danger so freely as he has always been like this, since the day he stepped into the monastery.”

Lucio hummed at that, chin in hand. “Can’t say it seems that obvious to me, he’s been quiet and collected that I’ve seen. I cannot picture him being that kind of hasty –not like Mr Green sentai here. I guess they do fit well with one another then.”

“ _Blue sentai_ –” Genji hissed at him in warning, cheeks burning again as the flush returned tenfold.

“Oh, he’s always been like that, really,” Yutta piped in, sounding mischievous, “there was one time I remember where he tried to sneak into the monastery three stray dogs during a the monsoon months, only to find out two of them gave birth in his room on the same day…”

“Oh my God–”

“He tried to hide it from Master Mondatta, but it didn’t really work,” Vrishika added, chuckling behind one hand. “Not when you’re an omnic and you’re trying to sneak food into your room, that is. We thought he’d found a lover, or was housing a runaway again…”

“Wait, _again_?”

“Ah, that wouldn’t have been the first time, yes…”

Genji looked from Mondatta to Vrishika to Yutta, eyes wide behind his visor, unable to match this spirited Zenyatta with the calm one he’d met, yet he could still see the resemblance, and he found himself smiling as he listened to the three omnics share a few more tales about Zenyatta’s turbulent past at the monastery as the car reached the hotel and parked in the back, out of sight.

Mondatta moved to one of the side entrances with his companions, and Lucio went with them while Hana and Genji chose to use the balcony way instead, Genji holding his hand for Hana to take so he could run all the way up to the top.

“So…” Hana waited until they’d started the climb, Genji’s legs aided by his dragon powers, “you think Zenyatta is cute huh?”

Genji almost lost his pace, glaring at her as they moved upwards, bouncing from balcony to windowsill and higher still. “ _Pink sentai_ –”

“I mean, I knew you already had questionable tastes,” Hana continued, teasing, and he could just picture her smirk under her visor. “I did call it –he interested you even before talking to him~”

“Pink sentai!”

She chuckled and waggled her index at him. “No need to lie, Green sentai. You were really into the whole evil tentacle monster since the start, all intrigued and fascinated, so now that you know he’s really just a nice, sweet omnic underneath all that creepiness… what’s there to stop you? Pursue your dreams!”

“Pink sentai, I swear, if you don’t stop this–”

“So what, you can tease me about my crushes but I can’t tease you about _yours_?” Hana couldn’t show her eyeroll, but she sure did sound like she was doing one. “Isn’t that a bit unfair? LOL.”

“Who even spells LOL anymore– wait, I don’t have a crush on… I _do not_ have a crush on Zenyatta!”

They landed safely on the balcony of Mondatta’s suite, then used their passes to get into the bedroom to wait for the others to get safely to the top floor.

Hana flopped down on a nearby chair, observing Genji as he paced around. He had no idea why he was suddenly so nervous, and he was still grateful for the visor, so it would hide how flustered he was at Hana’s teasing.

It was just their usual silly poking fun at one another, but this time he just felt the slightest bit unsure, because… well, it was the first time the target was someone like Zenyatta, who was Genji’s friend, rather than some nameless, pretty person Genji or Hana had met somewhere.

It was different, so it just felt… wrong.

Yeah, that was why.

“Man, you got it bad,” Hana murmured, though Genji didn’t quite catch what she’d said, so he turned to look at her.

“What?”

“Nothing, nothing, you’re just a butt, that’s all.”

Genji rolled his eyes, but as the door opened and Mondatta and his entourage entered the suite, he had no time to say anything else to Hana.

Mondatta was on the phone, seemingly pleased when he closed the call. “I have contacted the local Shambali division, and I will be using this chance to visit them. Zenyatta was able to send their way quite a few of his fellows over the course of the past months, but they have received no news so far, and I think it would do them good to know the sentai are now working in collaboration with us to find a solution.”

Startled, Genji looked at him. He had completely forgotten about the many ‘monsters’ Zenyatta had rushed in to protect and whisk away from them, and Zenyatta had not mentioned them since he’d started living with them at the base.

Lucio seemed to think the same. “How many are you housing? We can try to pull some strings and help somehow. It is our fault they were pushed into running away.”

Mondatta hummed, counting on his fingers. “So far, twelve were sent to that location, and five more found their way to another local division in a nearby city.”

“That… does not match the amount of monsters reported as gone after having a meeting with the Cultist…” Hana paced around the room “… unless the rest were… Zenyatta taking care of some of the monsters before we had the chance to get there.”

“That would explain why we have skewed results about how many attacks we had to face, and how many were gone before we got there,” Genji nodded, impressed. “He should have allowed us to take care of them. It is our job.”

Mondatta hesitated, fingers linked in front of himself, and though nothing of his external appearance changed, Genji suddenly found himself thinking he looked… older, weary. “You will find out soon, if you have not already, sentai, that Zenyatta enjoys feeling involved… and that he finds it rather difficult to think about his own safety.”

Genji felt his heart flutter, something heavy pressing down on it, a bit like anxiety and a bit like worry, ache spreading out, and swallowed it down the best he could.

He felt like Mondatta was conveying something more than a passing information –he was asking Genji to make sure Zenyatta was safe.

“As long as he is with us, I will do my best to ensure his safety,” he promised, knowing he could do not much more than that, but willing to try.

Mondatta tilted his head to the side, forehead array burning for a second a darker shade of teal, and nodded at him. “I am aware I am asking something that might be too much, considering the situation and the dangers you are all in, but…”

“No, I… I get that, Master Mondatta. He’s your brother. I… we are the heroes of this city, and he deserves to be as protected as anyone else in this city.” _‘and more’_ , he added quietly, thinking about Zenyatta’s pain and the hatred he had faced alone for so long.

“Thank you,” Mondatta took a step forwards, hands still clasped tightly in front of him. “He is the light of my life, and there has not been a single day I have not feared for his safety. He was alone for so long, and while he might not let it show, it weighted heavily on his soul, as he is strong, but he does not enjoy solitude. I am grateful he is with you now, so forgive an older brother’s excessive fussing –I only wish for his happiness.”

“I am glad I can call him a friend,” Genji answered, feeling sheepish in the face of Mondatta’s heartfelt confession. “I know I am just a single person, but I will do what I can. I also wish him to be happy.”

He was aware of the people around him, Lucio and Hana staring at him, but it did not matter –it was the truth, and he felt his heart ache, wishing to see Zenyatta be as carefree as he had looked in that photo Mondatta had showed them.

“Green sentai,” Athena’s voice filtered in his ears, shaking him out of his thoughts, “he is here.”

Following her words, the door clicked open.

Genji had expected Zenyatta to arrive through the balcony, but if he’d been in the middle of a fight, and lacking the energy to get to Mondatta’s suite that way, it only made sense he took the stairs, but Genji still felt his heart heavy in his throat, worry that someone had caught Zenyatta coming, that he’d been followed, that…

Zenyatta entered the room, and his optical receptors locked instantly with Mondatta’s, his body hesitating mid-step, looking tired and weary to Genji’s eyes, even the tentacles on his mouth piece going slack at the sight of his brother. “… Mondatta–”

At Genji’s side, both Lucio and Hana tensed up and took a step back, probably expecting the onslaught of the monstrous aura to flood their way, and Genji tightened his jaw, though he did not move, and–

Mondatta ran past him, not a single instant of hesitation, and flung himself at Zenyatta, arms wrapping around him in a tight hug.

Zenyatta made a soft, pained sound, the closest thing to a whimper Genji had ever heard from him, then his own arms wrapped around Mondatta’s midsection and tugged him closer, face plate buried in his chest even as Mondatta cooed at him, binary and clicks that were too low for Genji to even hear, let alone understand.

Genji watched the hug, his heart feeling swollen and painfully tight in his chest, and he swallowed thickly, overcome by a sudden need to do something without knowing what.

Two years, he thought –two years, and they are finally reunited.

The moment felt oddly private, and Genji really wanted to look away –he really did. Lucio and Hana had both looked away, still wary and uncomfortable, shuffling a little, shoulders tense, but Genji… could not look away.

There was so much longing inside him that he could not explain, fingers itching to do something, his chest burning with that same ache, but he could not look away from the two brothers finally together again.

He’d never seen Zenyatta look this small and frail either, as big as Mondatta in frame and built, and yet curled so tightly against Mondatta’s chest that he looked tiny in comparison, lost and pained, and Genji…

Genji wished for him to never feel any sort of pain ever again –to be the one to stand between Zenyatta and whoever made him this way, with a vicious kind of determination that almost surprised him, a mix of anger and pain he could not truly describe.

“I think… we should go,” Hana murmured, softly. Her voice sounded almost choked, but it shook Genji out of his thoughts, and he found himself nodding even as he never looked away from Zenyatta and Mondatta, still locked in a tight embrace.

“I… yes. Yes, we… should.” Genji cleared his throat, whispering so not to break the kind of warm, intensely focused mood in the room, but even as he said that, he could not move.

Lucio gently pushed his shoulder towards the door, and Genji finally stepped that way, embarrassed a bit by the intensity of his emotions, catching himself looking back even as he, Hana and Lucio left the room and closed the door behind his back.

Somehow, the idea of leaving Zenyatta inside pained Genji even further, and not because he wanted to know what had happened earlier with Reaper, but with an unnamed need to have Zenyatta where he could see him, though he knew it was an irrational thing to wish, when he was safe there with Mondatta.

Hana slumped against the wall and slid down to sit on the floor of the corridor, hunching her shoulders a bit, and Genji looked at her, not understanding why she looked so small too until Lucio gently passed by him to nudge her, sitting at her side with their shoulders pressed together. “You ok?”

“I hate it,” Hana muttered, and Genji finally realised that she was probably in tears behind her visor. “He’s been waiting to see his brother for years and all I could think was that I didn’t want to be near him because of his aura. I couldn’t…” her hands clenched into fists on her lap, the anger in her voice startling Genji. “He doesn’t deserve this. And then Master Mondatta didn’t even hesitate, he just… he ran at him without caring about anything else, and there wasn’t even _an aura_ , and I still…”

Lucio hummed softly, nodding along. “I got you, Pink sentai. I know. We’ve been so busy skirting around that thing, we still did poorly as heroes, leaving him alone for so long. I’m sorry, Green sentai. I wish I could work around it like you do, but I know how White sentai felt, and it’s… difficult.”

Genji stood there frozen, thoughts shifting slowly away from Zenyatta and to his fellow rangers –his friends. He had known that Angela felt horrid about her reaction to the monster aura, he knew it got her bad enough she had to leave for a bit, but he had never thought it would affect Hana and Lucio like this either, but… he should have known.

They were good people, all the sentai were, but Genji had been so focused on Zenyatta he had forgotten to check on them too.

He brushed one hand in front of his visor, wishing he could take it off to rub at his face unimpeded. “That’s my failing as your… well, unofficial leader since we have Winston, but you get me.” he moved to sit on Hana’s other side, watching as both Hana and Lucio turned to look at him. “I’m sorry, guys. I didn’t think you’d be this affected because it never felt that bad to me. I think about him and the aura matters even less, but I remember how it was at first, with the other monsters before him. I never realised I always had it easier compared with you.”

“You shouldn’t say sorry, though–” Hana cleared her throat and sniffled loudly. “We’re supposed to be the heroes here, and we’re sitting all together while Zenyatta’s reuniting with his brother inside that room, and it doesn’t feel all that heroic today at all.”

“We can’t be heroes every day, Pink sentai,” Lucio told her, and Genji could picture him with a small, wry smile on his lips under his mask, yet…

“I think they wouldn’t agree, though,” Genji prodded her gently with a finger. “To those omnics in that room, I’m pretty sure we’re the real heroes, even if you think we didn’t do much. Some days, that’s still good enough.”

“You’re a butt, Green sentai,” Hana told him after a pause, but there was laughter in her tone now. “But you’re a good one.” A beat of companionable silence, then she added “and if you suddenly find the guts to, you won’t be a ‘single’ person soon either.”

“ _Pink sentai!_ ”

Lucio laughed. “You were holding that in since before, were you?”

Hana elbowed him, grinning under her mask. “Yup.”

***

After the fight he’d just had, rattled and tired deep into his circuits, Zenyatta felt… washed out.

The thought of seeing his brother again, which had sustained him until then, suddenly felt daunting instead, fear rattling at his carefully built walls.

He was grateful that Transcending had lessened his aura again, this way he could enter the hotel building from the back without anyone noticing him, though there were a few glances in his direction, as even his nanomachines had been weakened by the fight and could barely keep him hidden from sight, his masking flickering every now and then.

Thankfully, the corridors and the elevator had been empty as Athena led him to the suite area, but once he got to Mondatta’s room, his servos refused to make him take the last step.

“Zenyatta, they are all waiting inside,” Athena gently prodded him, her voice startling him.

“Yes.”

He could not hear any voice from inside –the walls were soundproof, which was a good thing, and yet, the fact that he could not hear anything made him just the more tense.

In the end, he centred himself and pushed the door open, Athena clicking the code open for him, and…

Mondatta was there, looking at him. Nothing else mattered, except his brother standing there, so close now, and “… Mondatta–”

He did not know what he’d meant to say, his core stammering and faltering with the weight of all the emotions, all the discord he felt within his soul, but greater than that was the longing he felt at finally being this close to the omnic he considered his family, as close to him as if they’d been made as two parts of the same whole.

Yet, he faltered, hesitated, fear washing through him in that same instant, afraid that now that they were this close, Mondatta would–

Mondatta moved towards him without hesitation, running at him, arms open, and enveloped him in a tight hug, the world around them disappearing in a flurry of robes, and the soft smell of sandalwood incense that Mondatta loved so much wrapped around Zenyatta, thick and intense and so familiar, just like the arms around him.

Shock made him go slack for one fraction of a second, something so close to anguish yet nothing like it filled him to the brim, emotion clogging up all his processors until he felt like he would burst and overclock with them.

It was too much –Mondatta’s arms around him, touching him, hugging him tightly, refusing to let him go, but Zenyatta could not push away, even if he’d wanted to… and he did not. He’d longed for this touch, for someone to hold him, for things to be alright, and now he had it, and it was Mondatta, reassuring him he was there, and…

Zenyatta’s arms finally moved to wrap around Mondatta, never wanting to let go.

He could hear, above the sound of his fans and his core whirring loudly, Mondatta softly murmuring at him in binary, urgent and frantic, reassurances and words of love, telling him over and over that he was there, that he’d missed him, that… that…

Zenyatta clutched Mondatta closer, burying his face into his chest, shoulders shaking, and tried to forget the world, and himself, and the nanomachines, and Reaper.

He had his brother, and nothing else mattered.

“My light, my little brother,” Mondatta murmured in his auricular receptors, binary urgent and desperate even as his arms remained around Zenyatta’s frame, clutching him close. “No matter how you look you will always be my little precious sun.”

He found himself whimpering into Mondatta’s vest, synth dissolving into pained clicks and static, overwhelmed by so many emotions he could barely contain them, processes sluggish under their weight, yet unable to move or do anything about it.

For all he cared, the world could vanish, as long as he could stay like this, just a little longer.


	20. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has some plot hints n important stuff though not much action happens, sorry about that. :)

**Chapter 19**

The string of coding in front of Winston’s eyes swayed for a second, the screen blinking with Athena’s symbol.

“Zenyatta arrived at the hotel safely.”

Winston looked away from the screen and towards the one where usually Athena resided whenever she spoke with him, and realised there was an uncomfortable crick to his neck, and exhaled slowly. “Ah, thank you, Athena. That is good to hear. I was worried.”

“So was I,” Jack’s voice was rough at the edges, sounding grave and tired, and Winston rubbed his temples with his big fingers. “The reports you have sent me are… concerning.”

They had been in a call for the better part of the last hour, at first monitoring Mondatta’s speech, and then analysing some of the data on monster attacks in conjunction with Zenyatta’s information about which one were monsters and which one had been people turned into monsters, and Jack’s face had progressively gotten more and more scrunched up and weary.

Winston could relate, really.

With an awkward cough, he clicked out of the coding and brought up a different graph, this one detailing the fluctuating level of attacks in the past month. With Zenyatta’s added data, it seemed like their original thought –that monsters had been decreasing– was not quite correct, but at the same time it was also not wrong either.

Zenyatta’s outlier presence had tackled on more monsters they’d not been able to fight, but some of the ones they had were not real monsters, so the ending tally remained mostly unchanged.

Somehow, Winston found that positive.

“We have discretely opened a case, and started to inquire with other heroes and external vigilante fighters how many monsters seemed reluctant to fight them,” Jack spoke up, shuffling with some papers on the other side of the call. “Ana is jotting down a list of possible candidates to be debriefed about the nanomachines and allowed a higher clearance. You can tell Genji that his brother has sent in a message asking for his team to be one of them. They seem trustworthy, but we will speak in person when he comes to the city.”

Winston nodded absently, then blinked. “Wait… huh. Hanzo is… Hanzo is coming?”

“Yes. Did Genji not mention that?”

“Ah…” Winston thought about Genji, and how much of his time and energy were spent around Zenyatta, and quirked his lips into a small, wry smile. “He must have forgotten. He is rather… taken with our new guest.”

Jack snorted. “Even Ana and I noticed, and we’ve only been around him for a couple hours. Yet…” the twist of his lips turned into a frown. “If not for his continuous attempts to speak with the Cultist, we would not have found anything out. Genji’s instinct is pretty good. Gabe’s always been like that as well, which would be… useful, if I could contact him.”

“Still no news? That is… concerning. How long has it been since he stopped calling you?”

“He said he had a mission around three, perhaps four months ago. At first he called me once a week to make sure I knew he was still alive and kicking, but then… the calls stopped, and I have had no luck with finding him either.”

“Was he stationed somewhere else with a higher secrecy level?”

“Not that I know of, but I have… ways to work around clearance. He’s disappeared. I wonder what the fuck he’s doing.”

“Language,” Winston admonished absently, and both Athena and Jack snorted. “Jack… look at this.”

Winston’s fingers tapped on the keyboard, pulling up an X–Ray slide of an omnic’s body. Jack looked down at his own computer, where Athena was sending the same files.

“What… what am I looking at?”

It was a shot taken of Zenyatta’s sitting body during the only time Winston had managed to run a few tests on him. Most of the chassis and servos were covered with tiny and almost translucent dots, in a pattern that reminded Jack of a railroad map, with what appeared to be three specific spots where the dots were concentrated into. One was Zenyatta’s forehead, one was roughly where his core was, and the third was an area on his midsection, though as Jack moved from one X-Ray slide to the other, he could see that the actual spot was on his lower back.

As he squinted, enlarging the slides to have a closer look at one of the areas, Jack realised with a jolt that the spots were actually nanomachines.

“These are…”

“Yes, the nanomachines on Zenyatta’s body. They appear to retreat to those three areas most of the time, with the bigger conglomerates controlling the rest from three parts of his body that receive more sensorial activity. The cranial area, where his forehead array is situated and most of his thought-processes reside, the core, which powers his entire being, and the connectors on his lower back, where most of his physical power chargers are.”

“I admit, I don’t really know how this looks like as a scientist, doc, but from what I can see, they seem to be pretty much rooted all over his body.” Jack’s voice sounded grave.  “Separating him from them would be… difficult, if not downright impossible.”

“They have changed his molecular structure to adapt it to the nanomachines and their advancements and upgrades. But this is not all… look at this. Athena, Video Alpha-Gamma-Five, please.”

Jack watched a short video play on his screen. It was a graph with what appeared to be a stable activity line in a straight path, sometimes trembling but overall almost static. Then, something flickered, and the line plummeted down.

“What is that?”

“The moment Zenyatta connected with Athena and uploaded his consciousness from his body to her mainframe.”

Startled, Jack looked from the screen and back to Winston. “What was–”

“Well… not… not just the nanomachines. That was a recording of the, uhm, the monster aura contained in the nanites, as registered by Athena’s machines. I have… had a lot of time to create the program, but I could only access the recordings from monsters we actively fought while I was working on it, so it took months just to set down the initial Beta for a testing, but with Zenyatta’s presence at the base, I finally had the necessary data and parameters I needed to finish it.”

Jack’s eyes widened. “Could this be used as a warning for incoming monster attacks?”

“It should, yes, as long as I give it enough power to use for that, uh, specific purpose. This was a test drive, as you say, and it was… interesting. Do you see the drop? That is when his consciousness left the body. The monster aura… disappeared.”

“Do you have X-Ray slides before and after his consciousness was uploaded elsewhere? Are the nanites inactive while he is not in control?”

“We did not have time for a deeper test, but I plan to address that next time,” Winston nodded. “We might be onto something, uh, perhaps. But… with… you know who… it has been rather difficult to work with Zenyatta.”

Jack exhaled slowly, a pinched look on his face. “Winston. I know you are worried about her reaction to Zenyatta, and… with good reasons. Her methods are gritty, and difficult to deal with, but her expertize would make her a perfect candidate, as long as we kept her away from actually experimenting on Genji’s friend.”

Winston’s hands fumbled on the keyboard, reluctant to admit that Jack was right.

Jack had proposed Moira as a possible candidate earlier during their conversation, watching her at the speech, and Winston had surprised himself when he had failed to reject the proposal outright.

She was the expert on nanomachines, and her specific set of skills would be infinitely useful, of only Winston did not have to worry about her possibly using Zenyatta as a lab rat for her experiments. “Jack, I… I don’t know. I worry about her… ethics, and… Zenyatta has already been through enough on his own without having to worry about her possibly disassembling him in her _glee_.”

“I know. Gabe was the one who had to work with her during our OverWatch days, and she’d always seemed interested in… well, in his capabilities.” Jack had a pinched look that Winston was entirely too familiar with. “Still, we need to be rational about this. Ana is running a background check on her just to make sure, but her expertise would be invaluable. Think it over, alright? We will not clear her to know more about this unless you agree first.”

Winston deflated at that, disliking this new, heavy responsibility.

“I have to go now. I’ll share these files with Ana and Torbjorn. Maybe he will have a better idea how to help Zenyatta if he sees what he might have to work with.”

Not even a second after Jack closed down their call, Athena’s icon flickered to life on the screen in front of him. “Winston, Moira is back.”

Winston tensed. “Athena, commence security lockdown Three-seven-four.”

He watched the screen flicker, and then every single file from Zenyatta’s tests disappeared from his computer, downloaded and kept safe within Athena’s AI, coded and split into smaller data packets scattered through her cloud and mainframe.

With a sigh, he spun around and went to greet her, only to find her in the common room brewing herself a cup of tea with one of her two assistants, the short girl with cropped hair.

“Oh, I see you are at the base,” Moira nodded at him. “Do you want some tea, Winston?”

“Ah, no, thank you. Not… quite fond of the taste.”

“As usual,” Moira smirked at him, but there was a teasing, familiar edge to it, and Winston thought back about the period they had worked together, side by side.

Despite her ruthless pursuit of scientific knowledge, Moira had always been… irreprehensible. While Winston prided himself to have a different approach to experimentations, due to having been a subject himself, a long time before, he knew his instinctive distrust in her might not be rational, and with Reaper’s appearance, and how far things were escalating, her capabilities would be…

Pushing those thoughts down, he moved towards her. “How was the speech?”

“The security was… passable. Other than your sentai rangers, I mean. These bureaucrats working for the city council could not recognize a decent security service if it bopped them in the head with a bat.” Moira sipped from her cup, and at her side, her aid snorted. “Mind you, that publicity stunt will be perfect to strengthen the hold of your sentai rangers, and the city council is… rather smitten, as of now. I am quite… impressed.”

Coming from Moira, such words were more than a simple compliment, and it made Winston blink, surprised by her honest praise. “Ah, uh… well, thank you!”

“Winston, I need to be completely honest with you.” Moira placed her cup down, twisting in her chair to look directly at Winston.

Even sitting, and with his impressive stature, they were almost on the same eye level.

“What, hmm, what is it?”

“I have noticed you are avoiding any talk about the Cultist orb around me, quite obnoxiously at times, ever since I arrived here.” Moira flashed him a sharp, searching gaze, and Winston did his best not to shrink in front of her. “It is obvious you do not wish for me to examine it.”

“I… I mean, well, Moira, that’s not… you see, things have been rather busy with Master Mondatta’s arrival, and…” Winston stammered out, the unexpected words making him fumble, and Moira let out a slow, long sigh.

“I have to offer my apologies to you.”

That did make Winston do a double take, shock obvious on his face enough that Moira chuckled. “I know, it is not something you would expect from me. Yet, I pride myself in being… honest, when honesty is due. And I do need to apologize to you. I have noticed your… reticence… in allowing me to run my own tests on the orb you got from the Cultist, but I willingly ignored your reservations and tried to push my own demands on you, even though the Cultist is still under your jurisdiction, and thus I have no claims on it, even with my… superior skills on nanomachines.”

Winston cleared his throat, taken aback. “Well, I mean… it’s…”

“The truth. I must confess my desire to study that orb is due to my curiosity on the matter. The Cultist chose _your_ city as his dwelling, not a city under my jurisdiction, and I was… disappointed. He probably chose this place because of how… flashy and obvious its protectors are, and there have been so few interesting monsters appearing where I work, I feel stifled in my own research. New data is important, and there is simply not enough at hand. You had… something unique at your disposal, and I found your unwillingness to pursue it a fault. Later, when you had a specimen in your hands, I was further upset. I am simply restless, and this is why I’m offering you my apology. The Cultist’s weapon is interesting, and a challenge, really, but it is yours to tackle, not mine.”

“What she means to say,” the assistant grinned at Winston, cheeky and amused, “is that she’s sorry for butting in, but she’s been bored out of her mind.”

“Yes, thank you Olivia for your succinct summarizing capabilities. That is exactly what I’m paying you for.”

“You don’t really pay me, this was an unpaid internship–”

“–regardless,” Moira made a small cutting motion with her hand, “You are doing a good job here, Winston. I did not mean to take it out of your hands as I did.”

Winston took a few seconds to wrap his head around the apology –Moira rarely, if ever, admitted she was wrong about something, so this felt an unprecedented situation– but he was also rather pleased by her words. To hear he was doing a good job, and had further opportunities to study the monster situations where Moira, despite her highly capable squad, could not…

He turned around, unable to stand still, and looked out of the window for a moment, considering his options.

It was true he did not trust Moira, but… she was on their side, working to stop the monsters, and not an enemy. She was driven, yes, but her desire for learning only made her a more formidable scientist, and that part was what Winston respected of her.

They did not have to truly get along, though in a way they did, getting competitive and sometimes petty, and he was sure Moira felt the same, but she had extended him a hand, because at the end of the day, what mattered was the threat, not their squabbling.

Even if he did not respect her methods, or her sharp words or her attitude, he had to remember his own wariness was just a personal opinion, and it was a failure as a scientist to hold that above her skills.

That did not mean he wanted her to know about Zenyatta, at least not while she was still here, or that he did not think it would be dangerous if she knew of his presence and the truth about him, and while he idea of allowing her the clearance made him wary, he knew her expertize would be sorely needed. She could give a critical input in ways Winston might ignore, and if they worked together, he would have control over what she could know or not.

“Well, uh… what if we just… run a few tests on the orb together, then? Moira?” feeling less than secure about it, Winston finally turned around. “Would be just like old times.”

Moira blinked, appearing surprised by his offer, a small, honest smile passing on her lips before it was hidden by her tea cup. “Why, Winston. That sounds like a perfect proposition.”

“There are some samples I extracted from the orb, we could focus on these together.”

“The Cultist appears to be so different from other monsters, such a novel incognita… thank you, Winston, for allowing me to be part of this.”

This was his choice, and it still did not mean he’d allow Moira to have clearance, at least for now. But depending on her work today, he would think about it.

They walked towards the lab, with Moira’s apprentice lagging behind, looking bored already.

“Don’t mind her,” Moira snorted, whispering but loudly enough that Olivia could hear. “She’d asked to be sent to another mentor for her internship, but she was sent to me instead. She wanted to work on computer tech, not lab work. Such a brilliant mind… wasted.”

“I can hear you, you know.” Olivia sent her a glare.

“I am perfectly aware of that, but it is also the truth. You know my door is always open if you want to switch to my faculty.”

“As if. Going back to building firewalls will be the best gift I’ll ever receive after this is over.”

Winston snorted, amused at the assistant’s snarky attitude. “I guess I can see why you’d want to keep her around,” he found himself joking, for a moment feeling like they were back to an easier time. “She’s just like you.”

Olivia, startled, glared at him, even as Moira chuckled, mirth hidden by her hand. “Hey!”

Winston led them to the laboratory, and though he still felt a bit worried about allowing Moira around Zenyatta’s mala, he was determined to monitor her through it.

Much to Winston’s satisfaction, Athena had already prepared the lab during their walk back. The orb was in a small container in the middle of the room, placed under a glass dome, electrodes connected from it to her mainframe, but most of the desk held the samples she had extracted from it, with the relative preliminary tests and information.

He glanced at the screen as he passed by, her symbol flickering as he watched, and was grateful to notice all of Zenyatta’s other info was still hidden away, so Moira would not see it or even realise it was there.

He was playing a rather risky game, but depending on the result of this careful test, he might end up asking Jack to look into allowing Moira the clearance for the mission. Her mind was best kept active, and boredom was the enemy of any scientist… especially one as brilliant as she was.

“Well then,” Moira turned around to look at him, hands crossed behind her back in her usual attentive pose. “You are the master of this lab, Winston. I will defer to you. Let’s start.”

***

“Do you wish to sit, my light?”

Zenyatta made a small, aborted motion with his head then he hesitated, exhaling a synthetic sigh before finally nodding.

It meant leaving the safety of Mondatta’s embrace, and facing again the fact that he was not back with the Shambali, but still… well. Still a monster, still alone, still as far from finding a cure as before.

Yet, he knew he could not hide from his problems simply because he’d found his brother again, and if he hesitated too long, he would never find that courage again.

Slowly, haltingly, Zenyatta uncurled his fingers from Mondatta’s frame. He had the urge to cling to his clothes, but managed to fight it down, only for Mondatta to keep his arm wrapped around Zenyatta’s shoulders as he led him to one of the couches, obvious in his desire to keep close to him.

“It is so good to see you, my dear,” Mondatta cradled Zenyatta’s face in his hands, and tugged him closer so they could press their foreheads together.

Zenyatta’s core hummed, feeling himself resonate with Mondatta, and he closed his optical receptors for a second, enjoying the sensation before opening them again and nodding at Vrishika and Yutta, who were hovering nearby but allowing Mondatta and Zenyatta a bit of privacy. “I am happy to see you both here and well,” he told them, and meant it.

He’d missed more than just his brother, of course, though he’d been his priority, but just seeing two of his old fellow monks also made him feel at ease.

They seemed to realise he had trouble with close contact, though, perhaps in his hesitation with Mondatta, perhaps simply by feeling his Discord, because neither approached him for a hug or a casual touch, even if they remained nearby.

Even with Mondatta, Zenyatta was feeling overwhelmed, but he refused to stray far, his fingers twitching as they clenched down on the hem of Mondatta’s kasaya.

“Happy to see you too, Zenyatta. I am sorry the circumstances are not ideal, but you are in one piece, and that is good enough for me,” Yutta said, forehead array flickering in a pleased smile. “We’ve missed you.”

“We did –it’s why we’re here,” Vrishika added, mindlessly tapping against the corner of the couch. She was a tactile person, and the fact that she could not reach out for Zenyatta bothered her, but Zenyatta did not feel strong enough to brave someone else’s touch, not when Mondatta was still at his side, his presence tangible and _there_ for the first time in years. “Had to fight with some of the others, Yue and Bob both wanted to come–”

“Chi was the hardest to dissuade, had to chance it out with a game of cards,” Mondatta helpfully added, chuckling.

“–Master Mondatta jests, he would have come if your cat hadn’t had a litter not even a month ago. A card game loss would not have been enough to stop him.” Yutta snorted.

“She had a litter?” Zenyatta was startled at the news, tentacles wriggling softly as he thought about the cat he had left with his brother when he had decided to leave the monastery.

“Five tiny wriggling kittens,” Mondatta confirmed. “We thought to name them after the sentai, but we did not know their actual names, and calling the cats by colours that do not fit seemed to be… inappropriate.”

Zenyatta stuttered at that, embarrassment setting his fans spinning fast.

“So we only named one of them after Green sentai,” Mondatta continued, and watched as Zenyatta’s shoulders jolted in surprise. “He is rather tiny, but the moment he opened his eyes we just knew. Black fur and green eyes. Seemed fitting to call him like that.”

Zenyatta was about to speak, flustered, but Mondatta shifted and placed the package with the photographs on his lap, and under Zenyatta’s attentive focus, he shuffled through them until he handed a particular one to him. It was the litter, all five tiny kittens huddled around their mom, and their sight had Zenyatta ache inside with the desire to go back.

“She seems happy,” he murmured. “But I would like to see her again.”

“When this emergency ends, you will,” Mondatta’s voice sounded sure, more than Zenyatta had in the past few months, even after joining forces with the sentai rangers. “You can keep that photo, and also these. I brought them with me so you could have something of home with you, since you are unable to return as of yet.”

Zenyatta accepted the package gratefully, hands shaking minutely as he sifted through photo after photo, core warming at all of them.

Some were of the monastery, rooms full of flowers in bloom and books and tapestries, and others were of his fellow Shambali, recent photos that made Zenyatta feel connected with them, even with the distance separating them.

When he reached one in particular, though, his movements stopped briefly as he found himself staring down at his own faceplate, his aura soured at the sight with the sudden, unexpected reminder of what he’d lost.

“… Zenyatta…?”

“Please, keep this one.” Zenyatta pushed the photo of himself away, static prickling at the back of his neck wires.

Mondatta glanced down at the photo, forehead array flickering in surprise, then back up at Zenyatta, and he knew his aura, his Discord, was thick enough that Mondatta could feel it. “I think you need to have this one as well, my dear.”

“I…” his synth glitched. “I do not think that is a good idea.”

It hurt, more than he’d thought it would.

The nanomachines had changed his appearance, and though the worst part had been the aura, ever since he’d stopped here, in the city with the sentai rangers, Zenyatta had been reminded, almost every day, that the aura was not the only change. That his appearance now was also twisted, and different, and monstrous.

True self was without form, and that was true, but Zenyatta was fallible, and lonely, and his sight scared people as much as his aura did. He was not the same omnic as before, and this failure in facing this truth also hurt.

Lucio and Hana… Zenyatta had been focusing on Mondatta earlier, but his emotions had been volatile and raw, and his sensitivity had picked up on their Discord as well, and also the tension in Genji’s shoulders.

They’d been scared of him, even without an aura, and were upset because of it, and because they knew their reaction hurt Zenyatta as well.

It was not something he could easily forget.

Zenyatta was… not as at peace with this new appearance as he’d hoped to be, especially now that he was spending time around others again. Now that he’d met Genji, also.

“Zenyatta. This is still you. No matter what appearance your form takes, the one within it is still Tekhartha Zenyatta.” Mondatta’s hand moved to cup one of Zenyatta, attempting to push the photo into his slack fingers, but he moved his hand away, though not unkindly.

“I know this much, brother, but…” Zenyatta looked down at his lap.

Surrounded by the other Shambali, their light, fluttery robes, polished metal and simpler forms, Zenyatta felt like he did not belong.

His _soul_ did, but…

“Zenyatta.” Mondatta’s voice made him look up again. “I knew you were facing all of this alone, but you are not anymore. I am sorry I was unable to be by your side until now, and that even now, I will only be able to stay for a short time, but… allow me to relieve some of what weights you down.”

Zenyatta’s fingers clenched tightly around the edge of his clothes. “I… brother. I am not sure whether this change can be reversed.”

Mondatta stilled.

“The nanomachines that are part of my body, they are… they have merged with my own circuits enough that it is difficult to believe they could be extracted. They have become part of me, and the monstrous aura… Winston and I ran some tests, and that aura is tied to my soul, not simply my body, but as long as they are together, as long as my core is active in a body… the aura will stay with me, as part of me.”

Vrishika and Yutta, also startled by Zenyatta’s honestly, went still. The room was deathly quiet, and Zenyatta exhaled a synthetic breath to steel himself before continuing, even though the words felt like a damnation as he spoke them aloud for the first time.

“I am afraid I might not find… a cure. That I will be forced to be like this forever, and if I… if I have a reminder of the way I used to be, well…” Zenyatta looked down at his violet arms, at the way his core burned green, sickly and otherworldly, at his feet that looked similar to tentacles, at the wriggling tentacles covering his mouth piece, then at the orbs surrounding him, their eyes blinking unsteadily. “This is me now. I need to make peace with that.”

Mondatta shifted slightly, forehead array dimmer, but Zenyatta lifted one hand, gently, and reached out to grab his own, hesitating only for a second as his servo and his sensors registered the feeling of Mondatta’s hand under his own.

“I have not lost hope, brother. I will allow Winston to run more tests on my body, stretch the nanites and their reach as far as they can go, and then further. But I cannot discount that it might not happen, and… the truth is more difficult to accept than I thought. This… this is the only way I can cope with it. I am not infallible, and I had to deal with this on my own until now. It is… not easy to share this truth.” His hand shook, and Mondatta moved then, enveloping his hand in both of his own, his grip tight.

“Zenyatta… forgive me for not being there for you when you needed me.”

“There is nothing to forgive, brother. You have been there, even if not by my side, and now… you are here, and Ge… Green sentai… the sentai rangers…” Zenyatta faltered, a flash of embarrassment for his double misstep before he shook his head, “they are with me as well. We will do what we can. But I need to be able to accept it might not be enough.”

There was a moment of hesitation, Mondatta’s fingers tight around his own, then the grip slowly lessened, though he did not move away.

Zenyatta could feel Mondatta’s Discord still burning through him, and then he felt Mondatta rein control of it, push it down so Zenyatta could not feel it, though with his heightened senses, Zenyatta found out even Mondatta’s steely control was not enough to truly hide it fully.

Somehow, the thought perturbed him.

“I will not push, not now,” Mondatta finally murmured. “Not when I have you here with me, when the time we have together is short, so I will not waste it trying to convince you.”

Zenyatta hummed, his synth vibrating with the sound. He could feel Mondatta was not alright with his decision, but he respected it enough not to force the matter, and he was grateful for that.

He had no more processor capacity for more emotional discussions, and just having Mondatta close, and holding his hands, was too much. If he tried to speak further about his… condition… Zenyatta was pretty sure his systems would shut down under the weight of it all. “… thank you.”

There was a short, pregnant silence. Mondatta rubbed Zenyatta’s hand in his own, thumbs caressing the nodes and the wires at the base of his palm, before he seemed to realise something, his head moving to look around the room.

“Perhaps… we should ask your friends to return inside. They should not be sitting outside in the corridors of the hotel, hmm?”

Startled out of his comfortable lull of silence, his processors slowly relaxing and servos depressurizing, Zenyatta glanced around, surprised to see none of the sentai in the room, then felt a small wave of embarrassment fill him.

So lost in his brother’s company, Zenyatta had forgotten the sentai rangers had been there, but he was grateful that they’d allowed them a bit of privacy.

He nodded, straightening his back. “There is no aura to keep them away for now, they should come back, yes,” he agreed.

He thought about moving a little away from Mondatta, but he could not bear the idea. They would have to split again soon, far too soon. He would take all the comfort he could until then, and attempt to provide Mondatta with some of it as well.

***

“This is… fascinating!”

Moira leaned forwards, observing the nanomachines trapped underneath the clear, thin glass.

They were reproducing, albeit slowly. They had been sealed away in stasis when Athena had extracted them from the orb, keeping them secured so they would not compromise the base, but now that they had been woken up for the sake of their experiments, they had become ‘alive’ again.

Winston pushed his glasses up his nose further, leaning closer above Moira’s shoulders, and observed the previously dormant nanomachines hook to one another, replicating quickly in the small enclosure.

“Athena, separate them, please.”

Athena intervened right away, creating a small containment field using the same tech Winston had created for D.Va’s defensive matrix. The nanomachines were caught and quickly separated before the replicated additions were rendered dormant again and isolated, while the original group was kept active but in smaller, singular units.

“More like, uh, troublesome,” he muttered, though unsurprised.

“So this is what makes the Cultist able to control these… weapons.” Moira tapped the screen of her tablet, bringing up one of Winston’s outdated pictures of Zenyatta during one of his rare sightings. “It is possible he was infected by these, and thus his structure was changed enough he could interface with these weapons…” she eyed the orb, still sealed away in its glass cage, her eyes narrowing down in speculation. “Yet, the process was not one-sided. These orbs have been transformed as well, affected by his alien aura, or perhaps, due to the nanomachines also being affected by that. Fascinating… but that implies the nanomachines were something he encountered in this universe, possibly during his travelling around before he got to this city.”

“it is, uh, possible that he encountered some hero who employed nanomachines in the past,” Winston hurried to propose, not wanting Moira to focus too much on the exact source of the nanites. “We do not know how alien biology reacts with things specific to this universe, as we have never had any sort of… specimen… to analyse.”

“Yes, that is true. Not that you would go that far, but this… this is just as good, Winston.” And despite the light jab, it was obvious she was simply poking fun at him without any heat.

“But… I’m more concerned on why the, uh, the monster aura does not affect these orbs.”

“Well, that truly is something rather surprising, yes.” Moira hummed. “Olivia, dear, would you please hand me the connectors of the machine you are standing next to?”

Olivia grumbled, her eyes never straying from her phone. “Why? Can’t you just get it yourself?”

“You are aware I can decide your apprenticeship is not enough for you to get your grades recognized, and you’d have to stick around longer, if I did that?”

“That big silly-looking machine here, you say?” Olivia dropped her phone down on the keyboard of the computer behind her, hurrying towards the machine and grabbing the two extending cables from one of its sides. “You wouldn’t dare, would you?”

Winston snorted. “You’ve got your work cut out for you here.”

So far, things seemed to work. Moira was focused on the nanomachines, she still did not know anything about the Cultist, or Zenyatta, and that was… good. More than good.

And then she would finally leave, and…

“Winston… look at this.”

Winston, startled by Moira’s sudden, hushed tones, shook himself out of his train of thoughts and waddled over to her, looking at what she was pointing at.

The cables Olivia had dragged over had been connected to both the dormant nanites in one of the sealed containers and to the active one sealed on the side, and the computer was reading a graph of the fluctuating electromagnetic impulse both sets were giving out. As the machine was also connected with Winston’s computer, his program automatically started monitoring them for the monstrous aura, and…

The results differed for both sets.

“I don’t… I don’t understand. These nanites were not… how…” Winston frowned, ambled over to the computer, and selected one of the programs he’d created to run over the results he was seeing.

The graph was clear –the cloned nanomachines were the same as the originals had been, nothing different, and no trace of monstrous aura on them… while the non-dormant nanites, the ones that had been the original samples Winston had taken from the orb, now emitted a small radiation of aura.

“The original nanites were possibly subdued and dormant, but in the process of duplicating themselves, something seems to have changed. They carry within them part of the monster DNA, as they had to interface themselves with the Cultist, and in turn, were contaminated back. Whether this means alien biology was compatible or the nanomachines reacted to it and changed themselves to fit instead is still up in the air, but… Winston, this might be truly a breakthrough!”

Even Olivia, who was sitting on top of a nearby table and was once again completely absorbed with her phone, looked up at that, surprised by Moira’s fascinated tone. “Is it _really_ that important?”

“Of course it is. If we can use the nanomachines as a counter to the monsters, in whatever way we could make them react, then we would finally have a way to harness an actual weapon. Understanding alien biology is the first step to understanding the laws that regulate a different universe, and once we find that, we can find a way to seal whatever… portal… appears to be connecting our two universes.”

Winston, though, stared speculatively at the graph. He knew more than Moira about the original source of the nanomachines, and this was… intriguing. He already had proof that they were tied to Zenyatta’s core and self, and that the monstrous aura only existed if they were present within his body, but these nanites were taken directly from his orbs, which were… not connected to Zenyatta’s frame, and were devoid of monstrous aura.

In fact, had not detected any sort of monster influence in the nanomachines, or at least, not until they had started to replicate themselves, and there was still no trace of it on the dormant ones that had been created from the original set.

This was… well, Winston was not sure what this meant, yet. But he had every idea to test as much as he could with Zenyatta present.

Still… Moira did not have all the information, and yet her hypothesis might not be entirely wrong. Zenyatta might have been interacting with the nanomachines in a different way because of his being an omnic, but his specific powers were also to be taken into account –his Harmony and Discord orbs, for example, and his ability to transcend and become impervious to all sort of damage for a short period of time.

The interaction between those powers and the monster aura was already established, as it seemed Harmony and Transcendence lessened the effect of it, or even nullified it for a short while, and perhaps it was something they would need to address, but if the nanomachines were a possible key to both the connection between the creation of new monsters and the actual monsters, then… maybe there was a way to revert the effect, though Winston had not much faith that he would ever be able to remove the nanites from Zenyatta’s body, or any of the other victims.

Still… Moira was right, and for the first time in over a year, Winston found himself hopeful.

 


	21. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I sort of wanted jesse to be back, haha... he'll pop around soon again, but i love him???? anyway yes.
> 
> it's a slower chapter, but we're in a moment of lull before more action pops around, so hang in there :)

**Chapter 20**

The 7/11 was not usually too busy in the late afternoon, but much to Jesse’s surprise, the moment he came by for his shift he found a line of people waiting in front of the cash register.

The cashier, looking harried, noticed him coming in and waved him closer.

“Man, I’m so glad you’re here, it’s been hell since morning!” he processed a purchase, then pointed Jesse to the back. “Get changed and grab a mop –I think someone spilled milkshake at the ice cream dispenser and I can’t move.”

Jesse pulled a face, his shoulders slumping in defeat.

He’d switched shifts with a co-worker to go to Mondatta’s speech, but that was also after a night spent patrolling, so he regretted not taking the afternoon off, as he was running with only two hours of sleep in the past forty hours; unfortunately, he did not want to waste the few sick hours he had left, in case he needed them for when he was _really_ sick.

He moved to the back, quickly changing to his work clothes and then grabbed a mop, hurrying past a few customers to get the mess cleaned up before someone could start complaining.

Or accusing them of wanting to harm other customers and then threatening to sue them for it. Which had… already happened.

Twice.

Much to his disappointment, it turned out the mess in front of the ice cream dispenser was not, in fact, milkshake, but the entire contents of one of the cans of ice cream –the chocolate one, which, at first sight, made for a very different impression.

“Thanks god I was wrong about that,” he muttered to himself, kneeling down to start cleaning, the sludge staining through the mop and spreading a little bit further as the ice cream started to melt onto the pavement.

It was a relief when no customers wandered to him to demand information or help, and Jesse managed, with a little bit of time, to clean up the entire mess. His outfit had a few brown stains on his sleeves and pants, but other than that, he’d managed to keep himself relatively clean, which was a plus.

As he turned around to put the mop away and go back to the registers to relieve his co-worker of some customers, he noticed a can peeking from behind a shelf.

He turned into the next aisle and groaned; they had a pyramid of canned products stacked carefully there for customers to pick at, but the pyramid was gone and all the cans were now scattered everywhere. Jesse took a step into the aisle, and it was then that he noticed someone was already there, slowly stacking the cans back into piles.

By the clothes they were wearing, it was a customer, not an employee.

“Uh… what are you doing?”

The man twisted his head to look at him, startled, one can still in his hand, frozen mid-movement as he’d been about to put it on top of another. “Forgive me,” he straightened his back and turned around fully. “I noticed the mess and could not help myself.”

Jesse raised both eyebrows. “Well, who am I to stop you then?” then, realising what he’d just said, he hastily moved towards the man. “I mean, thank you sir, but this is why we work here. I, uh. Let _me_ do this.”

The man –barely taller than he was, with a primly, short beard and sharp, defined features– crossed his arms and his lips tilted upwards, just a little. “Long day?”

“Actually, it just started. Been at the Shambali speech…” Jesse blinked, and shook his head, quickly arranging the pyramid back the way it was supposed to be. “Did you need help finding something?”

The small smile was still on the man’s lips, though all Jesse could think was that he was just having a bad luck streak in front of a customer –and one who looked well off, too. “Actually, yes. I was searching for a particular item, but I cannot find it.”

“Well then, it’s your lucky day! I know where everything in this place is! Because, well. I work here.” Jesse did not face palm himself, but the temptation was strong.

Maybe he really should have called in sick.

Instead of getting weirded out, the man snorted and Jesse felt just a little better. Not by much though.

The item the man was searching for was actually one they had a rather large stock of –it was Genji’s favourite snack, so they always kept extras to make sure they would not run out of it through the week, though they also kept it in the back, and it was not a popular enough item that most people wished to get.

As Jesse carried an armful of it to the cashier, he pondered over how sometimes looks could be deceiving –for someone who appeared so high-class, the man had the same cheap taste Genji had.

The cashier looked happy to see Jesse resurface and ceded his spot with a grateful nod, though he tried to walk away casually instead of running for his break. Jesse watched him go for a second before turning towards the customer. “Will that be all?”

“Yes, thank you.”

The man paid his purchase, and Jesse quickly bagged the pile of snacks for him, a small smile on his face as he thought about sharing with Genji that some guy with a nice beard and a cool suit had just bought the same snack Jesse had only seen Genji get before. He caught the man’s eyes as he handed the bag to him. “Have a nice day!”

“Thank you. I hope yours will go a little better now,” and with that and a small smile, the man dropped something into the tip jar next to the register and turned around to leave.

Jesse peeked into the tip jar, expecting a couple extra coins there, only to do a double take as he realised the man had dropped a sizeable amount of cash into it. “It sure as hell just did, this is more than I get paid for the entire day! I mean! Thank you sir! _Do_ come back!”

He saw the man’s pace falter, his shoulders shaking in what he assumed was an amused chuckle, but he was too busy gathering the tip in his hands, the smile on his lips making him forget the all-nighter and how tired he still felt.

“Did that hot guy just tip you…” his co-worker looked over his shoulders, eyes wide, and whistled. “Ni~ce! Wish I got that!”

Jesse scratched his head, still unable to believe his luck, but pocketed the tip with an extra flourish and went back to work, his mood considerably better.

***

“Zenyatta?”

Startled, Zenyatta straightened his back, forehead array blinking in confusion.

“Are you alright?”

Genji was crouching in front of him –and he had not been there before. Zenyatta realised he had almost dozed off, battery levels low, and he could feel Genji’s worry like a thick blanket. He was not the only one staring at him, much to his embarrassment –Mondatta, Vrishika and Yutta were all looking his way, their own waves of worry just a little less strong than Genji’s, and even Lucio and Hana, though farther away, seemed concerned.

His internal clock told him it was barely mid-afternoon, but he felt sluggish, tired after his fight with Reaper and Sombra and the following meeting with his brother.

“… yes. Forgive me. I must have been more tired than I thought.” He ran a quick diagnostic test. “The hacking did quite a number of my system, and it appears I have yet to fully recalibrate after that.”

Genji froze. “… hacking?”

Mondatta also froze at that. “Is this about that encounter you had earlier?”

They had avoided talking about it until then, preferring to keep the subjects light-hearted, and Zenyatta felt bad about worrying them now.

“Yes. Reaper had a… colleague, of sorts. She seemed to have abilities related to technology, as she was able to teleport away and hack my mainframe. Still… she seemed as surprised as Reaper to find out I was not fully organic, so she did not expect me to be an omnic. I think her attack would work, though differently, on humans as well.”

“What… what would hacking a human do? Would it block powers or…” Hana and Lucio stared at one another, puzzled but at the same time creeped out by the news.

“But are _you_ alright?” Genji flopped down in front of him.

He had tried not to hover, since he did not want to steal Zenyatta away from what little time he had with his brother, but he’d noticed him grow more and more silent as the others continued to talk, and in the middle of one of Mondatta’s tales about the monastery, Genji had noticed Zenyatta nodding off.

He was worried, and wanted to do something, but he had no idea what.

“I do. I think I have discovered something important about the nanomachines that I have absorbed from you, and I will need Winston’s help with that, but…” Zenyatta glanced over at Mondatta. “It can wait.”

“I do not think so.” Mondatta pressed one hand on his shoulder, so that Zenyatta could not look away. “It is important that you fix this problem. Your system is complex, but currently unstable, and it will tax your processes and your balance if you do not find a way to stop them. You said it has been affecting your abilities, and that when they become active, you feel sluggish. This cannot continue. It does not matter if it cuts on what little time we have –your health comes first.”

“Yes, but how can we proceed, when Moira and her entourage are always around?” Hana leaned forwards, tapping one foot on the floor. “She does not seem to want to go.”

“You have mentioned she would not treat my brother correctly if she knew of his existence, though I have only spoken with her a couple times in the past few days.” Mondatta hummed. “I trust your judgement on this, but... she is still part of the nation-wide squad for the protection of citizens, is she not?”

Lucio shifted where he was sitting, uncomfortable with the subject. “Yeah, it’s just her methods that are… well. A little too brutal.”

Genji flopped down at Zenyatta’s side. “A little is too nice. She’s _evil_.”

“Green sentai, just because you don’t like her–”

“None of us do!”

“–doesn’t mean she’s evil. I don’t like her either, believe me, but she’s still on our side.”

Genji exhaled loudly, but he knew Lucio was right. His dislike for Moira made him want to fault her for everything, but she was still a scientist on their side, and still doing her best to stop the monsters from attacking innocent people along with her team.

That did not mean he had to like her, though.

“Well, you have been juggling your job with my presence quite admirably, but perhaps, since she is here, she could relieve you all of at least one shift, which would allow my brother to work with Winston and see what they can do.”

His words were met with complete silence, as Mondatta’s offer had startled all the sentai in the room, and Zenyatta as well.

“I had plans to stay for a few more days, but my presence is, in fact, interfering with your patrolling, especially with one less sentai within your ranks, as you told me you’re missing one companion. It should be of no consequence for your… colleague… to offer her help, if so asked.”

“That is…” Genji hesitated, taken aback, then considered the offer properly. “We could wait until you are gone, Master Mondatta, but…” he looked over at Zenyatta, how tired he looked. “I agree this cannot wait. You have been attacked by Reaper twice already, and it might happen again, and… Zenyatta.” Genji leaned forwards a bit, though he did not touch Zenyatta, feeling like it would only overwhelm him further. “You are exhausted, and I am worried about what these nanomachines inside you could do. If this time was the same as before, and they could only be stopped by you transcending, then we _cannot_ let it go on. You said it takes a lot of energy for you to do it, so what if it’s not enough to drive Reaper away? What if he comes back again afterwards? We have to fix this.”

Zenyatta hummed softly, but he knew Genji was right, and with what his nanites had done to Reaper, attacking him and trying to rip some of his own nanomachines away, he knew this would only get worse with time.

“I know. If it’s possible to make that switch, it might be the best idea.”

Genji slumped a little, relief flooding him. “Thank you.”

Taken aback by Genji’s heartfelt tone, Zenyatta looked away, only to meet Mondatta’s gaze instead, and felt a flicker of embarrassment, though there was nothing private in what had transpired.

To brush that feeling off, he tried to focus on the present instead. “Uh… Athena?”

The answer arrived promptly. “Yes, I heard everything. I agree, it would be best to try and work this situation out. I wish I could download a part of my AI so I could follow you around, but I do not trust the nanomachines either –they have already tried to synch with my systems once, so until this is resolved, it is better we do not interact outside of a laboratory.”

“Duly noted.”

Athena hummed, her voice filtering through the sentai’s ears and Zenyatta’s com. “Winston is currently with Moira, so I cannot run this idea by him first, but I am sure he would agree. She has been… somewhat mollified, and has agreed not to pursue her examination of Zenyatta’s orbs on her own. They are studying it together, and–” ignoring Genji’s startled yelp, Athena continued “–Winston is keeping any and all information about Zenyatta safely coded and away from Moira, but this was the only way for Winston to keep control over the situation without making her further suspicious. Things are proceeding alright, and everything is under control.”

“Ugh, this makes me antsy.” Genji wanted to rub his face, but the visor he was still wearing did not allow him, so instead he rubbed his arms, clearly uncomfortable. “I really don’t trust her around anything belonging to Zenyatta. Or Zenyatta himself.”

“Well, I trust Winston.” Hana stood up, stretching her back. “Athena, just tell them we’re requesting a change for the shifts tonight. If she stays here, you could work overnight and we could patrol the city. Green sentai obviously will stay with Zenyatta.” That last part was added in what counted as a teasing tone.

Genji stiffened, reddening slightly under his mask, but he refused to let her words affect him, more so since he completely agreed, and had no intention to go anywhere else if Zenyatta was going to end up in Winston’s care again.

He still couldn’t shake the image of Zenyatta’s slumped over body from his brain, or his arm in Winston’s hand.

He trusted Winston, but… he just preferred to be there, just in case.

“I can do these experiments with Winston without you, if you want to patrol instead, Green sentai,” Zenyatta’s voice shook Genji out of his thoughts. “You do not need to worry about me, it is a controlled environment.”

“I want to be there!” Genji felt just a little bit embarrassed about his outburst, but only barely. “Besides, your company is better than patrolling.” Zenyatta’s shoulders jolted, just a little, and Genji felt his cheeks burn. “W-well, it’s true. Patrolling alone is boring, and it’s dark, and there’s nothing to do, and I just…” but that sounded like he just wanted to avoid his scouting around the city, which wasn’t true, but he also didn’t want Zenyatta to think… “I mean. You’re my friend, I enjoy being around you. Even when it’s not to get out of patrolling!”

His fretting was interrupted when Zenyatta started to chuckle, the sound starting like a soft, metallic chitter, only to end in a heartfelt static-sounding giggle, his shoulders shaking in amusement, forehead array flickering erratically as he laughed.

“F-forgive me, I am not… laughing at you,” Zenyatta tried to keep his laughter under control, but it seemed like he could not stop himself, though Genji honestly did not mind.

The sound was like tingling bells, and it made him feel warm inside at the thought he’d caused it.

“Ah, you can laugh at me all you want. I mean–”

“Thank you, Ge-Green sentai. I appreciate your company as well. If you do not mind, then, it would make me happy if you were to stay with me during the examinations.”

He paused for a moment, looking down at his hands, clasped together in front of him, then back at Genji.

“I am truly glad I have met you. Your friendship means a lot to me. Thank you.”

Genji was sure Hana had probably fodder to poke fun at him forever now, even without seeing how flustered the combination of Zenyatta’s laughter and his words made him, but as long as Zenyatta continued to smile, he was more than alright with that.

Though he did not quite understand why he also felt unsettled by that.

***

Winston accompanied Moira to the entrance of the base, though most of his attention remained on the experiments he had left behind in the lab for Athena to clean up.

“I do understand why the team might need to spread their patrolling area,” Moira spoke up, though it was obvious she was talking to herself, rather than to Winston. “They had to rotate with only three rangers, and that is not enough to cover an area as big as this city, even with the help of a few outsiders, but it is… unfortunate Angela had to leave.”

“Yeah, uh… well, you know, she’s been high-strung by her college exams, and with how much time she had to devote to us, she ended up a little, well, stressed. We thought it prudent to allow her some time to recuperate before it impacted negatively on her duties as a sentai ranger.”

“It is true that agents require strict health controls, it is why my squad has more than just four members, but we also have to cover a bigger area and with much less fanfare than your group, so we have ways to ease the load so each agent gets enough time off to ensure perfect performances. With how much your team is on the spot, they have… a far greater need of alternative methods of relaxation.”

Winston glanced over at her, still surprised to find her relenting so much about his work with the sentai.

“Oh, don’t be daft, Winston,” he winced, having been caught staring, “I have never visited, so I could not see for myself the specific work you were doing. All I had to go with were your reports, and they always sounded so… lacking. In a way, you could say the Cultist was the reason I changed my mind… and it would be right.”

Winston hummed, accepting the answer.

It was true, whenever they had official contact, it was always through videocalls, or whenever Winston and the sentai had a visit to the main headquarters, so she’d never truly seen the sentai rangers in action.

It did bolster his confidence some to see her accept his work to be of quality, just like her own.

Still, their amicable fights were mostly based on wishing to be seen as worth funding, and it was always a battle that saw Winston coming second place, because the kind of support he asked was more geared towards citizen approval rates.

Yet, Moira seemed to find great joy in them as well. Sometimes Winston wondered if she found her research moving too slow for her tastes.

“Don’t you ever, uh, find your work boring, then? Since you have so little freedom to move.” The question was not the one he’d meant to ask, but it was too late to take it back.

Moira paused mid-step. “Well… sometimes, yes. It is not about the freedom, truly, but the abysmal amount of information we manage to gather from the monsters that makes all the work seem unappealing, when at the end of the day, all we get is a pat on the back and no actual advantage towards monsters, or how to defeat them.”

“Ah yes, that has been why the upper heads keep, uh, pressing the importance of results on us, huh.” Winston found himself almost giddy, though –with the way their research was progressing, they would finally have something to use against monsters, rather than just send them back without a way to seal the gate connecting their universes forever. “So you do not mind assisting us with Master Mondatta?”

“Not at all. I will take this opportunity to inquire about what might be the reason so few monsters seem to appear in Nepal… or at least, in the area of the Shambali monastery. With their rare appearances outside, it has been difficult to inquire, or even form an actual thesis on the situation.”

“Winston, we have a visit.” Athena’s voice broke through their chat, and Winston hurried towards the door, expecting… well, probably Ana, or Jack, and instead…

“Oh, Mr Shimada, uh! Welcome!”

“Just Hanzo, please, Mr Winston. No need for formalities.”

“Ah, uh, then you shouldn’t call me mister, either! I’m just… me. I hope your trip was alright. Genji mentioned you would come.”

Hanzo was standing in the entrance hall of the base, where Athena had allowed him in, and much to Winston’s surprise, he was holding a shopping bag looped around one wrist and a small suitcase in his other hand.

When he noticed Moira standing there, Hanzo offered her a small nod. “Mrs O’Deorain, I had no idea you were here.”

“Mr Shimada, what a pleasant surprise.” Neither Moira nor Hanzo mentioned their respective formal greeting. “Are you here for work or a simple visit?”

“I have not seen my brother in quite a long time, and I had to make sure my schedule allowed me to take some time off. My city is… swarmed with monsters, as of now, but there are things that are just as important than duty. I am sure you understand.”

“Indeed.”

“What about you, then? Any particular reason you are here? I did not think you would be interested in the sentai rangers’ headquarters enough to be willing to make such an unpleasant trip.” Hanzo did not move an inch, but he squared his shoulders just a fraction wider.

Moira’s lips twitched in what looked –and felt– like a cold, impersonal smile, much different from the warmer one she’d offered Winston. It gave him whiplash.

“Oh, you know. Scientist things. Rather difficult to explain unless one is of similar minds, you know. Suffice to say, Winston here was able to acquire a sample of a monster’s weapon, and we might be rather close to… a breakthrough. I am sure that once the news is out, the headquarters will keep everyone informed, including your squad.”

“… yes, I would hope so.”

“Hanzo, Moira was just leaving. She has agreed to, uh, offer her help with Master Mondatta’s security for tonight’s shift in order to allow the sentai rangers a wider spread for this patrolling session.” Winston cut in on their conversation, feeling the tension on the back of his neck. “If you want to see Genji, you can wait here, he’ll come back for a debrief before his team leaves again.”

Hanzo’s eyebrows creased, and he hummed under his breath. “I do not mind waiting, and I wish only to speak a few words with my brother without hindering his job, either. I will wait in the common room, if that is alright.”

“Ah, yes, that is perfectly alright. I am sorry you happened at such a busy time, Hanzo, but your presence here is always welcome. We know how busy you are, and I don’t want, ah, for you to have to stay any longer than needed.”

“My team is in good hands while I am not there –my replacement is competent, and has shown themselves to be capable enough to lead the squad. I will be able to stay here for a couple days without my absence causing any discomfort.”

Winston coughed. “Glad to hear that!”

“Who’s that?” Olivia’s voice caused both Hanzo and Winston to jump a little, as neither had seen nor heard her approaching. Behind her, Moira’s other assistant remained quiet and uncaring, a bland look on his face. “Is he a sentai ranger as well?”

“Forgive me for not making the introductions. Mr Shimada, these are my assistants, Olivia Colomar and–”

Olivia’s phone rang loudly, interrupting Moira, though instead of excusing herself and moving to the side to answer, Olivia tapped the screen, lifting one finger, rudely interrupting Moira’s words. “Yes? Andréas! Noo, I’m still stuck here following Moira around, can’t make her drop me yet. Such a slave driver, she had me hold her sample containers earlier when I could have started on my tech work instead–”

“Forgive the impudence of my assistant, Mr Shimada. She has decided her apprenticeship with me was not the one she was looking forwards to, but she could find a much more satisfying path if she just switched majors…”

Hanzo’s lips twitched up in an involuntary smirk. “No offence taken, Mrs O’Deorain. But I would not wish to needlessly keep you waiting when Master Mondatta is waiting. I watched his speech while I was flying here, though I unfortunately missed the ending when my plane was landing. It was… an enlightening experience.”

“Was it not? That omnic’s goals are admirable, and the views of certain people towards omnics are… medieval, at times. Such a waste of potential. Well then. I will take my leave. Olivia. We’re _leaving_.”

“Yes, yes–” Olivia rolled her eyes, then went back to her phone. “I’ll call you back later, gotta go now.”

Winston and Hanzo did not speak until Moira and her two assistants were gone, and even then, Winston waited a little longer before finally allowing himself to relax.

“I am… sorry for this, Mr Shim– I mean, Hanzo.” Winston rubbed his forehead, feeling the starts of a headache coming. “Moira’s presence here has made things difficult for us to help Zenyatta –that is, uh, the name of the Cultist, as you surely know– and we had to find a way around that.”

“She is quite the driven person, but this way you will have some time at your disposal, I see.” Hanzo rubbed his chin. “I was not fully briefed by my brother, as the last time we spoke him was a couple days ago. Is there any progress yet?”

“Yes –but please, follow me. You have had a long flight, let me properly welcome you to our headquarters.”

***

“I will be back the moment the sentai return, brother.”

Zenyatta stood on the edge of the balcony of Mondatta’s suite room. Though his face plate was as stoic as ever, Genji knew that he did not like the idea of leaving, and by the way Mondatta remained hovering at his side, shoulders drawn back and forehead array dim, he felt the same.

“I know, my light. At least this way we won’t have to be parted for long, since we would both need to power down to rest regardless. I will have you back by my side as soon as you are able to, but these tests need to be done, and…” Mondatta hesitated, even as he cradled Zenyatta’s head in his hands to bring their foreheads together. “Please find it in yourself to rest. You are running low, and you need to slow down.”

“I will. Please do not worry, Mondatta.”

“Green sentai…” Mondatta turned to him and Genji was startled into straightening his back. “Please make sure my brother rests.”

Genji smiled under his mask. “Yes, I will make it my first duty after the tests are done.”

“Do you not trust me, brother?” Zenyatta did not sound wounded –in fact, he sounded almost amused.

“To be fair, you are not exactly famous for following my kind suggestions, Zenyatta.”

“Acknowledged.” Their foreheads still pressed together, Zenyatta found himself chuckling, hands coming to rest on top of Mondatta’s. “Please, rest assured that Green sentai will look after me, as he has done until now. I trust him with my safety.”

Genji swallowed thickly, the warmth in his guts feeling a little bit like ache. “I will do my best not to betray your trust.”

“We both know you would never do that, Ge-Green sentai.”

Zenyatta disentangled himself from his brother’s arms. His mala orbited around Mondatta for a precious, few seconds longer, almost as if wishing to stay, then they returned to Zenyatta’s side. “I wish I could leave one here with you, but I do not think it would be safe. Take care, brother. I will be back in the morning.”

Mondatta nodded, restraining his worry, and moved back inside, so not to attract undue attention.

“So, how are you going to go down from here?” Hana shifted closer, and Zenyatta tried his best not to look at her, feeling the tendrils of her Discord still clinging to her shoulders.

She was trying to be amicable, and he was grateful for that, facing her own troubles to be friendly, and Zenyatta felt his already high respect for her grow.

“I will simply jump,” Zenyatta answered candidly.

Despite the heavy conversation he’d had with his brother, he was almost surprised to feel… alright.

It was true that he had to face the possibility of never returning to the way he had been, but Zenyatta had spent far too many years feeling negative and pessimistic about life, in the past, before finding his brother and becoming family; then, after his transformation, he had spent so much time travelling alone, hoping he could find someone who would trust his word and wish to help, and now he’d found that, and despite still having to face his own monstrous aura and Reaper’s existence, Zenyatta still felt like things were better than before.

He had the sentai by his side, and they were doing their best to make him comfortable even when they felt dread by being around him. He had Genji, who made it clear, over and over again, that he was Zenyatta’s friend, and would fight for him. He had his brother again, after two years of separation.

He was not travelling through an endless, unlit tunnel. Zenyatta still had hope, and he would not let go of it.

“What do you mean, simply jump?” Lucio looked down.

The hotel was tall, far too many floors, and even the sentai, with their heightened powers and augmented technology, felt a sliver of worry whenever they had to move at such heights.

There was a certain thrill to it, yes, but at the same time, they were still human, and could still feel wariness when climbing and doing things that normal people would consider impossibly dangerous.

Zenyatta hummed. “What is your strategy for this? Are you suits accessorized for flight? I must confess I have only seen Pink sentai and White sentai employ such a thing, in the past.”

“Nah, we can’t really fly. I use my mech, yeah, but she’s too big to employ all the time… or that’s what Winston says, bluh.” Hana shrugged. “White sentai’s power lets her latch onto others and fly to them, which is really convenient when people like Green or Blue sentai work with speed, or if I’m using D.Va and she needs a lift from the ground, but she also can’t fly –just… hover?”

“I can climb by channelling my dragon’s powers and using my own skill-set, that I trained since childhood with my brother.” Genji spoke up, and felt a surge of pleasure when Zenyatta made a small, impressed sound.

“I’m good with wall-climb because of my enhancements,” Lucio added, and Genji felt robbed when Zenyatta turned his attention to him. “But it’s harder than speeding on the ground, and takes more time, but that’s how I’m going down now. Pink sentai, do you want to join me?”

“Sure! Green sentai, you ready to go?” she linked arms with him and both waited for Genji to move.

Genji glanced over at Zenyatta. He wanted to offer him a hand, but did not want to assume he could not do it on his own, but if he was _tired_ …

“I have recovered while I was in the suite, Green sentai,” Zenyatta told him, which was… disappointing, though he was glad Zenyatta felt better. “If it is alright, I will follow you at my own pace.”

“Well then. Team, Zenyatta… let’s go, before Moira comes!”

Zenyatta hummed, and around him, all of his mala started to vibrate and glow slightly. Genji, Hana and Lucio looked at him, wanting to see how he would start to descend from the top of the hotel, and Zenyatta–

Stepped off the balcony edge and dropped down.

“Zenyatta!”

Genji’s feet moved without him ordering them to, power surging through his frame as he called for his dragon’s aid, and then he jumped to follow, ready to run all the way down across the hotel’s vertical wall in order to reach Zenyatta before he could…

Zenyatta was gently hovering down the side of the hotel, cushioned by a wave of what appeared to be invisible current shared between his orbs and his own body, his core and forehead array burning a bright, deep green.

“W… what?”

Genji almost slipped and fell, but his dragon’s powers wrapped around him and under his feet, allowing him to grip the edge of the building and slowly slide down, until he matched Zenyatta’s slow pace.

Above them, Hana and Lucio gawked down at them before they hastily moved to follow.

“Forgive me, Green sentai, but I truly could not resist.” Zenyatta tilted his head to look at Genji, and though expressionless, Genji thought he looked rather smug. “I am aware you are looking out for me, but I think you have to remember I am not helpless. My omnic energy, amplified through my mala, allows me to strengthen my hovering ability enough to let me glide slowly without a problem… but of course, it is quite slow. I was not able to hover since my transformation, but when I touched the Iris again, I also gained this ability back.”

Zenyatta continued his slow descent, Hana and Lucio gliding down on the side of the wall, though they had to move in a zig-zag motion to keep their pace steady and not too fast.

 “So what would you have done before?”

“I am fairly sure the nanomachines in my body would have aided me with climbing, but I have not yet tested this theory.”

Genji nodded. “Still… I know you are more than capable, Zenyatta.” He did not stop his own slow descent but he made sure Zenyatta was looking at him. “You saved my life, I could never forget that. But… I can still worry.”

“I know, Green sentai.”

“And you sort of ran away twice to deal with things on your own and came back tired and weary. You can’t blame me for worrying.”

“… yes, that is also true. I apologize. I have yet to come to terms with the fact that I am not doing this alone. It has always been a fault of mine.”

Genji’s lips curled in a small smile. “Yes, Master Mondatta mentioned that.”

Startled, Zenyatta’s forehead array flickered. “Did he, now? What else did he say?”

“He told me about some of your… adventures at the monastery.” Genji’s grin grew bigger. “And about the dogs.”

“Mirtle and Moana had no other place to go.”

“…. Mirtle and Moana?” Genji’s grin was big and though it could not be seen, he knew the tone of his voice betrayed it. “Master Mondatta said they were called Anya and Turtledove?”

“… there might have been a… few more similar cases.”

“A _few_ more?”

“Green sentai, you should probably stop listening to my brother’s stories.”

“Or maybe I should ask him to share more.”

They finally landed on the ground in the back of the hotel, and Zenyatta’s mala stopped vibrating and settled back around his neck, though two shot away from him to scout ahead and make sure no one was near.

“That was a cool trick you got there!” Lucio finished his wall ride with a flourish, landing on the ground with Hana on his arm.

“Thank you. I enjoyed your tricks as well.”

“How did you see them if you were not… oh, right. The ever-seeing eyes on your orbs. Got that.”

Zenyatta flashed him a forehead-array smile.

“Well, here is where we’re dropping you off. Green sentai, Zenyatta, we’re off for the patrol. Two of us will make it quicker, and if we need help, we’ll page you through Athena.” Hana cracked her knuckles. “Maybe this time I’ll get to use D.Va!”

Lucio elbowed her. “Don’t count on it too much, Winston said not at night.”

“A girl can always hope.” Hana hesitated for a moment, then turned to look at Zenyatta. “But first I need to say something. I… I am sorry. I know you felt…” she pointed at herself and at Lucio. “But I just wanted to say I’m… sorry we hurt you.”

“I understand, Pink sentai.” Zenyatta turned to look at her and nodded. “I do not hold it against you.”

“I know you don’t! That’s… that’s the point.” Hana made a low, aggravated sound. “We all know it’s not something I can control, but also. It’s… nothing you can either. And I know you know that but… sometimes it’s good to have someone tell you anyway, right? And I’m going to try, and Blue sentai too, and… you can feel sad. You don’t have to always accept everything just because it’s nobody’s fault. You can be angry that someone did this to you even if that someone is not here.”

Zenyatta remained quiet for a moment. “Yes,” he finally said. “Please do not misunderstand me. I do feel angry, and I am… sad… over this situation. Quite a bit. That is the fuel for my Discord, and the reason I managed to survive both times I was attacked by Reaper.” Hana was startled at that, having not expected him to say that.  “I simply do not wish to burden you with this. I am aware you already blame yourself for not being able to stay at my side.”

“You’re… uuugh,” Hana’s shoulders shook in silent laughter. “You’re too nice, you know? It’s infuriating.”

“I will take that as a compliment.”

Lucio shook his head. “Don’t even know what to say, man. I know we’re not quite there yet, but we’ll do our best. We asked your friends up there to give us a hand, so we’ve got a few pointers to work with. I know it’s going to be a long process, but… it can help during fights as well, if we end up too close to the actual monsters for too long. We’re going to ace this, so… I guess what I’m asking is just a little bit more time.”

Zenyatta’s mala hovered away from him into a wider orbit, encompassing all the three sentai, making gentle, metallic pings and for a moment bathing all of them in Harmony light.

“That is more than I could ask of you to do. Thank you, Blue sentai, Pink sentai.”

Lucio gave him a thumbs up, then he offered Hana his arm again. “Let’s roll, partner?”

“Off to patrol then! Green sentai, Zenyatta, have fun!”

Then they were off, leaving Genji and Zenyatta down in the street, alone.

“Guess we should go as well.” Genji sighed, glancing to where Hana and Lucio had disappeared to. “They’re really feeling bad about it. I’m… sorry it took me so long to notice, as well.”

“You are doing your best as their captain, Green sentai. We all learn to deal with our own emotions at our own pace. There are many things I have to face that I have been avoiding, so I cannot fault them for doing that on their own terms.”

“You’re always good with words. I guess it comes with being Tekhartha Zenyatta, huh?”

“You mean a monk from the Shambali?”

“No, someone who has to weasel himself and multiple pregnant dogs out of trouble at any given time, with no warning.”

As Zenyatta’s laughter echoed in the empty streets around them, Genji was grateful that once again, his mask hid the huge smile he knew he was sporting.

 


	22. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update, I had a lot of editing to do and RL stuff to work through, but here we go!! :D

**Chapter 21**

“Master Mondatta?”

Mondatta turned around from the balcony window to Vrishika. Her forehead array flickered in worry, her shoulders slumped a little. He could sense, faintly, her worry vibrate in her aura.

“What is it?”

“I am… concerned about brother Zenyatta. What he said…” she hesitated, looking down at her hands on her lap. “What he said about not wishing to have a reminder of his old appearance.”

Mondatta sighed, feeling the weariness return. He had, momentarily, allowed himself to forget about it, with the way Zenyatta appeared lighter in the company of the sentai –or, specifically, in the company of Green sentai– but all of it came back now, and the weight settled back on his core like lead.

“Yes.”

His tone conveyed his mood effectively, because Vrishika’s posture tensed, just a little bit, out of concern.

“You plan to address the matter with him again, is that right?”

Mondatta nodded, waiting to see what Vrishika wanted to say.

“I just feel…” she hesitated again, obviously uncomfortable with speaking up, and Mondatta felt her aura sour. “That it might not be a good idea.”

Mondatta looked at her, latching his arms behind his back. “His suffering makes my core ache, and I do not wish to see him deny himself this hope, though it seems so unreachable at the moment.”

“It’s just… brother Zenyatta is hurt, now. And pushing the matter might rob him of this carefully crafted balance he’s found again. If he found himself unable to touch the Iris again… not even the company of the sentai would help, and we would not be here to face the brunt of that, either.” Vrishika’s fingers brushed down the fabric of the kasaya on her legs, a nervous gesture. “He has had no peace, master, not in so long. I am aware this is merely a small break, and he will have to face more dangers in the future, more so with that new… monster?” the sentai had not been forthcoming about Reaper, as they also did not know who he was, but Vrishika knew he was dangerous, at least. “If we push too far, he will topple over, with no one to catch him as he falls.”

Mondatta reflected on her words, turning his back to them to gaze at the view outside of his balcony.

There was truth in Vrishika’s words, of course, but Mondatta found himself clouded by worry.

In the past two years he had watched from afar, unable to help, as Zenyatta’s hope seemed to wane despite his continuous struggle, alone and weary. He had never given up, and even now he continued to fight, but…

The way he had looked then, the clear rejection of his past… Mondatta had felt even more powerless then, and the thought stung.

They were together again, though not for long, but he still could do nothing to aid him.

“Master Mondatta.” Yutta spoke up next, his tone a little more secure than Vrishika’s one. “I know you wish to help him, but… this might not be…” he wanted to say ‘reversible’, but he felt this choice of words too damning, so he hesitated. “He believes he has to remove himself from this in order to focus on something more urgent. Surely he does not have to confront his own insecurities now, of all times?”

Mondatta shut down his optical receptors, shoulders slumping, and refused to turn around.

He knew that they were right, and that his rational thoughts were clouded by his own grief towards Zenyatta, and his desire to see him happy again, but the idea of just allowing this to run its course did not sit well for him.

Yet, he knew there was nothing he could do, except offer Zenyatta a willing ear if he ever needed comfort. Soon, he would have to leave again, so soon, and the thought…

The thought was like a weight on his core that he could not jostle.

A soft knock on the door dragged Mondatta out of his thoughts, and he turned around, realising Moira O’Deorain had arrived.

Yutta moved without Mondatta having to ask him to, making sure to check the security camera installed on the door first before opening it, revealing Moira standing there with her two assistants flanking her.

“Good evening, Master Mondatta. I hope you will forgive my late arrival.” She waited for Mondatta to let her in, and graciously accepted the seat Yutta and Vrishika offered her. Vrishika watched with hidden amusement as one of her companions, the girl, promptly sat down on a chair and started playing on her phone.

“It is of no consequence. Since arriving here, I have not been bothered by anyone.” Mondatta finally turned around, putting aside his worries to act as a gracious guest. “I am grateful for your accommodations. I did not wish to intrude so much in the sentai rangers’ schedule, and I am appreciative for all their hard work –and yours, as well. I have heard from the sentai that you have a similar organization in your city, and it is why you are collaborating with them now.”

“Yes, that is true –although my team operates differently. We do not… try to gain attention from civilians, as it is. Yet, the goal for both groups is the same.”

“I must admit it makes me feel reassured.”

Moira looked at him for a moment, almost sizing him by the sharp look in her eyes, and Mondatta did his best impression of a quiet, unassuming monk.

“It has been truly a surprise to see you leave the safety of your monastery for this trip, but… not an unwelcome one.” Moira crossed her fingers in front of her. “Many of us have been tempted to reach out, considering how few monsters appear in your location. We have been unable to determine a correlation between the inferior number of monster appearances with your area, but data cannot be faked. Nepal is one of very few areas around the world with a low monster rate. I… as a scientist… have been incredibly curious about that.”

“This is true, and we have had a few requests over the years from various nations.” Moira’s shoulders hitched up in surprise, and Mondatta hummed. “It seems these requests were not made public then. We do not mind visitors, and never have, but those who spent time with us left with as many questions as they arrived with… and sometimes more. They found nothing to explain what you also have noticed, but the fact that the monastery area, as well as most of Nepal, is a safe area did not escape the general public.”

“Is it the reason you have avoided leaving for the past couple of years?”

Mondatta hummed, arms still behind his back. “Being safe was, obviously, one of the reasons, but my own wellbeing means nothing, if I cannot ensure the safety of all those who look up at me. The decision to not stray far was not one I took lightly, but… I had to learn the hard way that my early demise would not further my goals any.”

“What he means to say,” Vrishika was smiling as she intervened, “is that he was forced to stay put because he almost died a couple times, and the first time was covered quite intensively by international news.”

“Ah, yes. I do remember that. And… the second…?” Moira sounded intrigued.

“It happened during the last speech he made. A local hero was in the area and protected him. He was the one who suggested Mondatta stay safe, unless he wished to employ a constant heroic guard… and Mondatta refused, even when the hero offered to be the one to follow him around.”

Olivia was the one who looked up at that, suddenly intrigued. “Oh, gossip. I love that. C’mon, fess up. Who was that hero? Was he a famous one? Oh, oh, did they meet _again_ –?”

“ _Olivia_.” Moira’s voice was sharp and cutting. “That is none of your concern. Please refrain from… what is it that you say… fishing for information.”

“Yes, please, Vrishika, that is not… important.” Mondatta had no ability to glare, but he shot one at Vrishika regardless, even as she refused to  appear sheepish at the rebuke. “We digress. Unfortunately, we have no information regarding the reasoning behind the lack of monster appearances in the area. The resources for analysing this have been deployed for the past years, and the monastery had quite a lot of visitors, or people simply looking for a safe place, but unfortunately we could not host as many as we wished, and there have been… unsavoury situations with people who were not seeking asylum, so now entrance is highly regulated. It is unfortunate in these trying times that some people are out wishing harm on others.”

“Oh,” Moira tapped a finger on her chin. “Is it why there has been a request to the main organization for more heroes to be deployed in the area? I heard about it, but did not know why, considering the lack of monsters.”

“Yes, that is why. It is also why it has been almost impossible to leave the premises for my usual speeches, other than for safety measures. But being coped up without means to aid those who need it is not something I wished.”

“I am sorry for the situation, but we are doing our best to make sure the menace of the monsters is finally conquered once and for all.” Moira let out a soft sigh. “With them out of the way, it will take longer to settle everything the way it has been, though… I do not believe things will ever be the same again.”

“The world was subjected to a great change, and we have learned to adapt. We will be more receptive about it, but hopefully, this kind of situation will not reflect poorly on humanity.” Mondatta waited a bit, then added “or on Omnic population.”

Moira’s lips twitched upwards. “You have quite a positive, hopeful vision.”

“Well, I have the choice to believe that people can take great changes and use them to further themselves, or fall into chaos. I do prefer to think they’d be inclined to go with the first option, rather than the latter.”

“How insightful. I admit my views on the matter are more… level headed, as it seems.” Moira crossed her fingers on her lap, and though nothing of her changed, she seemed a little bit more distant to Mondatta. “Humanity… and for the sake of inclusiveness, omnics as well… is bound to react viscerally to this. There will be many who will use this to divide themselves further, rather than unite under the same flag. Yet, many good things have been born due to the arrival of the monsters. We advanced, we progressed further in terms of technology, science and biology than we would have otherwise. What we make of this is… unimportant, as people will follow those with the louder voices, as long as they can be properly convinced. Master Mondatta, you might be one of those loud voices, but not the only one.”

“What does that make you, then, Miss O’Deorain?” Mondatta tilted his head forwards, forehead array bright. “Do you also follow a… loud voice wherever it takes you?”

“Oh, no. Do not misjudge my opinion as me taking a stance. What matters to me is the progress we managed to acquire. I only wish for it to continue even further. Everything else is inconsequential, as it has always been.”

Mondatta hummed, surprised but not quite at that. Moira seemed the kind of driven person who would chase after a goal that she could pursue with her own means, but it did make him wonder what sort of reach she could have, if allowed that much freedom.

He only knew what the sentai thought to share, and what Zenyatta mentioned while talking with him, so he was aware of the different perspective Winston and Moira had as scientists, and Mondatta knew, now more than ever, that Moira would find no qualms with experimenting on Zenyatta, as long as it would aid her scientific progress and further her knowledge on monsters.

Mondatta did not wish to gauge her motivations further, because she was… smart. And he did not wish to give her anything that could link himself with the sentai any further.

Her ideals made her… somewhat dangerous, but he trusted the sentai to keep all knowledge about Zenyatta a secret from this woman.

At least until she was gone.

***

“It should not take that long,” Zenyatta offered Genji a small array smile. “I have a few ideas about what I would like Winston and Athena to perform.”

“Is that so?” Genji glanced around, making sure no one was looking, before pointing up towards one of the smaller windows of the base. “Up there. If you have recovered enough, please use your nanites to cover up just enough so we get inside.”

Zenyatta nodded, flickering out of view, but before he could fully do that, Genji’s hand darted forwards, then halted an inch away from his now invisible wrist.

“Wait!”

“… what is it, Green sentai?” Zenyatta watched that hand hovering so close to his arm, frozen in place, and felt his core flutter, just a little. Genji had wanted to grab him, just like before, but he remembered Zenyatta’s problems with touch, and had refrained at the last second.

“I… I just…” Genji slowly removed his hand, and his shoulders hunched a bit, his aura colouring with embarrassment. “Never mind. It’s close. Just… follow me?”

Zenyatta chuckled quietly. “I am still here, it’s not like I’d be gone in the few seconds it’d take us to get up there.”

“I… I know, alright?” he did not sound defensive, just embarrassed, and Zenyatta hummed, the orbs around his neck burning golden for a second. “I know it’s stupid to get worried if I don’t see you. You’re here, and… and it’s safe now. And we’re always together. There’s no reason to be worried. Let’s get back inside, though.”

Zenyatta followed Genji as he bounced up the wall and onto the small edge of the balcony, watching him as he pressed one gloved hand on the wall, and it split open to reveal a concealed door.

“Athena, we’re back.” Genji’s sentai costume vanished and he turned around expectantly, and Zenyatta chuckled, his masking falling off. “Good,” Genji turned around, feeling silly but reassured now that he could see Zenyatta again. “So, you were saying?”

“… oh, yes. I have a few tests in mind to determine what to do with the extra nanites, now that I know I can pinpoint them in my body. I do not know how to neutralize them or have them removed safely, but this is what I hope to achieve tonight.”

“Welcome back, Genji, Zenyatta. Winston is waiting for you in the lab.”

Zenyatta expected the tests to commence almost immediately the moment he reached the lab room, but he was wrong –waiting for them together with Winston was a distinguished man he’d never seen before.

The moment he spotted him, Zenyatta froze.

He had been lowering his guard until then, surrounded only by the sentai and now by Mondatta and two of his fellow Shambali monks, and though the sentai did not quite appreciate his presence, they were still accepting of him.

He’d forgotten there could be surprises… and an unknown face at Winston’s side made him tense up immediately.

“Winston, we’re b–” Genji’s words stuttered into a shocked silence, and his eyes widened as he saw the person. “… Hanzo?!”

This shook Zenyatta from his stillness; so this was Hanzo…? Genji’s older brother? He would not say there was much resemblance between them, at least not at first sight.

Hanzo stood up from his chair. He was not much taller than Genji, with sideburns and a neat undercut, and dressed with a prim, unwrinkled suit, but what attracted Zenyatta’s attention the most was the cloud of thick Discord he had around his shoulder, which immediately lessened the moment he saw Genji, like sun peeking through dark clouds.

“Genji. I see you are well.” The warmth bleeding into his tone was surprising, considering he looked still stern and aloof, but then he moved, taking measured steps towards Genji who met him halfway. “I am glad.”

Genji’s lips curled in a smirk. “Back at you, brother. You look just the same –maybe a few more wrinkles, though. If you don’t pay attention, you’ll turn grey before your forties.”

“Always with your quips –as if knowing you’re in danger won’t be the cause for at least half of that grey hair.” Yet, despite his words, Hanzo smiled as well, and just like that, his stern appearance seemed to melt into something almost vulnerable, softer.

He opened his arms, and Genji fell into them, embracing his brother with a soft, pleased sound.

They did not hug in the way Mondatta and Zenyatta had done, with despair melting into relief, but with something just as deep –Hanzo’s fingers digging into the fabric of Genji’s shoulders until his knuckles went white, brows wrinkling as he shut his eyes close and held his brother tightly.

It did not last long, though, and soon Hanzo let go of his brother, straightening his back as his eyes focused sharply on Zenyatta, who found himself caught in that stare, feeling like he was being judged without words.

“You must be Zenyatta.” The tone had shifted back to something even and guarded.

Zenyatta faltered, reminded all of sudden that he was not normal, his appearance as monstrous to Hanzo as it was to anyone else, but he did not flinch, folding his hands in front of himself, and remained calm. “Yes. My name is Tekhartha Zenyatta. You are… Mr Shimada Hanzo, is that right? Genji’s older brother.”

“Yes.” Hanzo moved away from Genji, who spun around towards them with a flash of apprehension in his eyes. “Genji explained everything to me, but… seeing you now…” Zenyatta braced himself –for what, he was not sure– but Hanzo abruptly folded in half, startling him with a deep, formal bow. “Please accept my deepest gratitude, Tekhartha Zenyatta. You have saved my brother.”

“ _Hanzo_ –” Genji’s voice had a whine to it, and he hurried to get to his brother’s side, cheeks burning, but Hanzo did not move.

Zenyatta glanced over at Winston, a fleeting look, but there was surprise on his face as well, eyes wide and mouth slack, and Genji did not seem to be faring any better, and yet…

He did understand. It was a shock to see Genji’s brother bowing to him like this, but Zenyatta understood what it meant, to have a brother in danger.

“There is no need for this, Mr Shimada.” Zenyatta tilted his head a bit, forehead array dim even as he bowed back, just as formal as Hanzo had been. “I am the one who is grateful. Your brother has saved my life as well, and pledged himself so that I would not be lonely, or unsafe. We could just… agree to be equally thankful?”

Hanzo’s lips curled upwards in a small, amused smile, and _there_ –Zenyatta could see the family resemblance. “I guess that is acceptable. But if so, then please do not refer to me as Mr Shimada. That is solely reserved for those I do not like.”

Zenyatta’s forehead array blinked in surprise, but he took things in stride. “Then if it pleases you, I would like for you to call me Zenyatta.”

“That, I can do.” Hanzo turned to glance at Genji, lips still curled in a pleased smile. “My brother has made sure I knew how much of a good person you were, so do not feel forced to keep a cautious act around me, Zenyatta. I have no preconceived hatred towards you.”

It was perhaps the tilt of his head, or the tone of his voice, but Zenyatta thought there was something more there that Hanzo was not saying –but it did not seem to be directed at him specifically, so he simply nodded.

There was a flicker of relief though, as Zenyatta knew that between his appearance and his identity as the Cultist, Hanzo had every right to think the worst of him, regardless.

“I must warn you, though,” he said, his synth shifting his tone so it would convey his meaning, “the aura will come back by tomorrow, so be prepared for that.”

“I have come in contact with many monsters, and I have trained extensively to be able to bear their ominous presence.” Hanzo’s eyes flashed with something darker. “You have nothing to worry about from me.”

“Ah, well. We could… start the tests now. Genji, if you and your brother wish to go somewhere to talk you are free to do so. It will be a long night.” Winston ambled closer, towering over the three of them. “Sorry for interrupting, but… well. We only have so little time, and I don’t want to waste it.”

“No!” Genji’s head swirled to look at him, even as he shifted closer to Zenyatta. “Sorry, brother, but I want to be present.”

“That is alright, as I would also wish to follow the proceedings.” Hanzo nodded towards Winston, lips again forming a thin line. “I can converse with my brother while you run your experiments, but we will both stay here.”

“Genji…” Zenyatta wished to say something, but Genji’s determined face made him relent –not that he truly felt too bad about that. Genji’s constant presence was one of the few things that allowed Zenyatta to feel at ease, and having him around only brought him joy.

Winston motioned for Zenyatta to follow him to a flat metallic table, so Zenyatta sat on it, and explained what had happened during his last Transcendence, and how he could now pinpoint how the different nanites felt to him.

“This is actually, uh, a convenient time to perform some more tests.” Winston tapped a finger against the side of the table. He kept a little away from Zenyatta, but he was closer than during their last tests. “We will be able to actively follow the return of your aura, see if it starts to return from your entire body at the same speed and intensity, or if the areas where the nanomachines are rooted cause a shift in that as well.”

Athena sent out an order and some wires unrolled themselves from the bottom of the table, reaching for Zenyatta’s ports. Despite the wariness the situation caused him, he accepted to interface with her.

Winston seemed to notice his tension, because he cleared his throat. “You do not have to be uploaded in her mainframe at all, uh. This time. We need your AI to be receptive if we want the tests to run true.”

While they were working to hook Zenyatta up to Athena, Hanzo moved to a corner of the room to retrieve the bag he’d been carrying earlier, and offered it to Genji. “Here. A gift, for you.”

Genji peeked into the bag, eyes going wide as he noticed the pile of his favourite snack. “Hanzo! You remembered!”

“Of course. I went to buy them in the store you keep mentioning.”

“Oh, wow. Thank you. I don’t have any of your snacks here at the base, but we could… go out tomorrow to get some, if you want.” Genji seemed to realise something, because he rushed to add “how long can you stay? Is your team alright?”

“I have selected a substitute for me, and if he is not enough, Satya will step up. She is more than capable to deal with this, if needs be.”

Genji hummed. He’d met Satya Vaswani only twice in the past, but she was one of the heroes Hanzo had personally selected for his team in Hanamura, due to her skillset and abilities. They worked well together, though Genji always felt a little bit unsure and awkward around her, as he could not read her attitude as well as he could Hanzo’s. She could be a bit intimidating.

“How come you did not choose her then?”

“Satya is not comfortable taking the lead of a team, and I would never push something like this on her without her complete acceptance.”

Genji grabbed one of the snack packets and ripped it open, shoving a mouthful of chips into his mouth. He’d forgotten how hungry he was, and until he could get his hands on an actual meal, these would do just as well.

His eyes returned to Zenyatta, unable to look away for too long.

He was now hooked up to the base of the table through three different cables, one to the port on his lower back, one at the base of his neck, and one, much bigger, coming out from his chest. The sight made Genji’s heart clench, but he made himself look regardless. Zenyatta appeared fine for now, so that was a bit of a consolation.

“You look alright, Genji.” Hanzo’s voice was quiet, as if noticing Genji’s shift in mood, and Genji sighed. “It makes me relieved. When I felt… but I do know you are more than capable. Yet, I cannot help but feel fear, when I think about you.”

“I… I get it, Hanzo. You’re my brother, of course you are worried.” Genji thought about Mondatta and Zenyatta. He’d used to feel upset at his brother for worrying, he’d perceived that as lack of faith in him, but… it was not that. It had never been that. “But I am. Zenyatta, he…” Genji shook his head. “I am fine. I promise.”

Hanzo hummed, short and amused, and there was something in his smirk that made Genji feel like he’d just missed something important.

Not that it would be unusual, with Hanzo.

“So,” Winston tapped on his keyboard, calling a set of graphics to the screen in front of him. Zenyatta leaned forwards to look. “I have discovered something while analysing your orb, but I would like to focus first on the, uh, the nanomachines that are out of your control.”

Zenyatta’s optical receptors flickered through the screen. He did not quite understand what he was seeing, except for… “Is that a diagram about the monstrous aura?”

“Ah, yes. You see…” Winston quickly explained the conundrum about the nanomachines he had extracted from his orb, and the light radiation his machines had picked up from them. “I do not know what made the aura resurface.”

Zenyatta tilted his head to the side. “So… the older nanites, once they replicated, seemed to regain their monstrous properties, but the cloned ones did not?”

“Yeah, that’s correct.”

Zenyatta looked down at his hands. There seemed to be a correlation, and it was tied to his orbs, but he could not guess what that meant.

“Are those orbs part of your machinery, Zenyatta?” Hanzo leaned forwards, intrigued despite himself.

“No, they are not.” Zenyatta turned towards him as Winston pulled up a new chart, this one monitoring Zenyatta’s nanites in real time, using the table as an X-Ray projector. “They are weapons I use to channel my powers. They were affected by the nanites that changed me, but do not seem to retain the same aura as my body does.”

“… interesting. Yet, nanomachines from one of your orbs appear to gain that aura once they separate from the orbs?”

“Yes. That seems to be the case.”

“What are the orbs made of?”

“It is a mix of alloys and circuits, built by my brother for my use. I only made one of those.” Zenyatta pointed to the orbs near him. As he’d been connected to Athena’s table, he had sent the rest of his orbs, minus the ones patrolling the city, at his side where they would not impede the tests. Following his words, one of the orbs chimed and rose a few inches. “They were specifically crafted to amplify omnic energy and channel it to allow me to use my powers through them.”

“Is that all they are?”

“Well… not quite. There are some crystals inside that vibrate and resonate at a low intensity. The vibrations and heat activate the circuits surrounding them, and allow the omnic energy to build and expand until it becomes enough to unlock the orbs. This happens in the span of a fraction of a second.”

“… I see.”

“Crystals?” Genji seemed just as interested as Winston and Hanzo were. “Like a specific kind or…”

“It is the same kind of crystal that is built into an omnic’s core. Usually, the crystal compound differs from model to model, as different kinds allow for different functions, and are an integral part in an omnic’s basic functions and are partially responsible for an omnic’s ability to learn and evolve on its own. The crystal contained within my orbs was sampled from the crystal compound within my own core, so that it resonates specifically with me. Other omnics of similar models could interface with my orbs in a similar way, but it would require them a lot more strain to be able to synch with them enough to use them.” Upon noticing their shocked expressions, Zenyatta chuckled. “I assure you, I was unable to control my mala at first, and it took me almost a year to fully master them.”

“That is… uh. Fascinating.” Winston seemed surprised, he even stopped his typing to stare at Zenyatta, eyes wide behind his lens. “Human scientists have been attempting to replicate omnium-build omnics for years, but the results are never, uh…”

“… never as good, I am aware.” Zenyatta crossed his fingers in front of him. “The technology employed by Omniums seems to be unique, though I am aware that if given some more time, the specifics will be employed to make spare parts again, allowing omnics more freedom, now that most Omniums have been closed down.”

There was no judgement in his tone, as he understood why the Omniums had been closed down, but unfortunately that also meant less replacement parts for those that got broken, and if an omnic’s core got damaged, there was virtually no one who could safely fix one to be as good as the original, healthy one had been.

It was why black market for omnic parts was so successful, and why there were so many nations outright working against it.

“Well. Uh. Let’s just… focus on this.” Winston returned his attention to the graphs on the screen. “This is the map of your nanomachine activity as it is now. This cluster–” he pointed at the one on his chest “seems to be almost always active, which makes sense, considering it gets powered directly through your core. The clusters on your lower back and forehead area seem to be mostly dormant, but we have noticed an increased activity for certain stimuli and when you select determinate processes to be run. How do you know how to pinpoint what nanomachines are the ones not belonging to you?”

Zenyatta hummed. “Please brace yourselves, it will not be pleasant.” Slowly, he called forth Discord from within his core.

He could have done it with Harmony, but that well had been depleted through his Transcending earlier, and he did not have enough of it to do more than light up his orbs, and that was not enough… so Discord would have to do.

It filled him easily, like a tide, heightened by his own turmoil, flickers of violet surrounding his frame, thick and slithery.

Winston gasped, and backed away from him, almost stumbling to get out of the way. Hanzo and Genji were far enough from him, yet both could feel the Discord; Genji let out a soft gasp, but he recognized the feeling from previous exposure and did not move, while Hanzo tensed, frowning deeply, and curled his hands into fists.

Zenyatta allowed himself to fall into the Discord, as he had done before with Harmony, and focused his attention inside himself.

The nanites that he used, the ones that were part of him and had been for a year now, were attuned to his powers, and had adapted to work with them, so whenever he called forth Discord –and after finding his balance again, Harmony– they were left unbothered, but… the new nanomachines had not synched with him, they had been forced to, and that made the difference.

Transcending forced the new nanomachines to submit, though not for long, and otherwise they remained mostly dormant, their buzzing easily getting lost within the many other nanites Zenyatta could control, but now that he’d spotted the difference, now that he could feel it…

“That is… incredibly intense.” Hanzo gritted his teeth, the onslaught of Discord within him enough to make him waver. “That is… part of his powers?”

“Haha, yeah.” Genji took a casual step back and shoved another handful of chips into his mouth to keep himself busy.

Winston turned his eyes to the screen, observing the change in the nanomachine activity as Zenyatta used one of his powers. The nanites surrounding his core lit up, activating all at the same time, but so did a lot of the ones surrounding his forehead, though not as strongly, and…

Slowly, the nanomachines in his entire body seemed to respond.

Winston frowned, rubbing his chin in wonder. The colour that signified the nanomachines activating was spreading through Zenyatta’s body, and while most of them did not lit up as much as the clusters, they still did.

“The nanomachines are unresponsive when I use my powers,” Zenyatta spoke up, startling Winston, who turned to look at him. “So they should become visible through their own inaction.”

For a few seconds, Winston observed carefully the screen, enlarging a few sections, scanning every inch of Zenyatta’s frame on it–

“I can see them,” Athena answered, sounding pleased. “They are scattered in smaller groups right under the main cluster surrounding Zenyatta’s core.”

Winston leaned forwards as Athena zoomed on the area, and despite the Discord wrapped around Zenyatta, so did Genji and Hanzo.

Right under the curve of the cluster of Zenyatta’s core, just as Athena had said, there was an unlit area of nanites, their dull grey now visible, surrounded by glowing dots.

Reacting as fast as he could, Winston grabbed what appeared to be a water hose and pointed it at Zenyatta’s chest, though much to Genji’s amusement, no water came out of it –there was a sudden jet of dark blue light going right through Zenyatta’s chest.

“Alright, do not move… ”

The screen flickered and changed. Instead of an X–Ray section of Zenyatta’s body, there was what looked like an incredibly realistic replica of the inner work and circuits of an omnic, and it was only after a moment looking at it that Genji realised he was actually looking at the insides of Zenyatta.

They were… intricate, not unlike looking at the inside of a computer, and Genji felt dizzy for a moment. This was what an omnic looked like –or well, the chest area– but to connect that with Zenyatta, who spoke and laughed and made Genji feel comfortable with his mere presence… it was hard.

Yet, would he not feel the same, if he had to see a person’s insides as well? He was not sure, as it had not happened, but perhaps it was simply because he was a human himself, and omnics were… different. He thought of Zenyatta as a person, even when he was made of metal, but that did not mean much, in the end. How they were made, or built, did not matter much.

Well, and inside a human there would be a lot more blood as well.

Shaking his head to stop these inane thoughts, Genji focused again on the screen. He could not tell what was meant to be there and what was not, but there were flickers of electricity running from one part of the main circuit block to another, pistons moving and pumping, and a lot of minute shifts he could not begin to name.

Right in the middle, there was a part encased in what looked like an iron box, apparently impenetrable to whatever Winston was using on Zenyatta, and Genji realised, with a start, that Zenyatta’s core was on the other side of that block, and his heart did a small, tense flip.

“I think…” Winston tapped on the keyboard, pulling back up the X-Ray on another screen, eyes flickering from one image to the other. “The nanomachine clusters that attacked you are forming these small plaques where these pistons connect with your main inner circuits, right here.” He lifted one finger, awkwardly, on the second screen. “The positioning… I wonder if they settled closer to your core as an attempt to take over, but the Transcendence stopped them. It’s possible that, uh, the fact that your nanomachins in your body are fully integrated with you is what made it harder for these new ones to take control. You said you were attacked by non-activated nanites, a year ago –they synched with you, but the new ones are, well. They attempted to synch with Genji first, which is why they did not take over your body as easily.”

Zenyatta released his hold on the Discord, and all at once Hanzo, Genji and Winston seemed to relax and slump a little as the dark, heavy veil of Discord faded away and back within Zenyatta.

The X-Ray seemed to go dark all at once, though some of the clusters around Zenyatta’s core remained active.

“As long as these remain inactive, we might have a chance to do something, I think,” Winston paced around the room, not looking at Zenyatta, who remained sitting without moving.

Genji glanced at him, hoping he would look his way, but Zenyatta did not, head tilted down to the cable connected to his chest, and Genji fought the urge to move closer, if only to reassure Zenyatta that he was there.

He was startled out of his staring by one hand clapping him on the shoulder, and he looked over at Hanzo. “Eat,” he said, and Genji reflexively grabbed another handful of chips and shoved them in his mouth, distracting himself from bothering Zenyatta.

“Zenyatta.” Winston stopped in front of him, closer than he’d ever been, and Zenyatta looked up at him, startled but attentive. “There might be a chance to, uh, prevent these nanomachines from harming you further.”

“…” Zenyatta’s forehead array flickered a dark green. “I sense disquiet in your soul. What is it that troubles you about this?”

Winston rubbed one hand across his face, almost shoving his glasses off his nose. “I… it might… it is not an entirely…” he took a deep breath. “It will not be an easy procedure, and it might be… well. Painful. I am not an expert on nanomachines, but I did work alongside Moira for years. These nanomachines might not be extracted from you in a safe way, and disintegrating them would damage the surrounding circuits, and it might be an extensive risk to take due to their positioning. If they had been anywhere else, maybe… but not so close to your core. But… there is a way to interface with their specific wavelength and irradiate the nanomachines enough that it will trigger a reset –and once they reset, they will synch with the closest being, which is. Well. They are inside you, so…”

Zenyatta, startled, looked to the side, seeking Genji’s eyes, though neither knew what to say. He looked back at Winston.

“This would make it possible for the nanomachines to become part of me,” he nodded. “But… they are different from the ones I already own, and it might cause a negative reaction.”

“Yes, that is a possibility, but… I do not think we need to fear that. Nanomachines are highly adaptable. There is a small chance they will interact with the ones within you in unpredictable ways, yes, or… and it is also a small chance… they will cause another change with your body. But!” Winston hurried on as Genji took a step towards them, looking panicked “That is a negligible percentage. We do not know what these nanites’ directive was, but it seems to be acquisition and control. If we break the original directive and return them to a blank state, they will be converted by the nanomachines you already have. It happened already while they were not fully activated, so I’m fairly certain this is the most probable outcome.”

Hanzo exhaled loudly from his nose. “What percentage of success are we speaking about, Winston?”

“Well, considering all variables, there is a seventy-three point five percent of success.”

Zenyatta folded his hands in front of himself. “Then, I think it is a better chance than not. I will do it.”

“Zenyatta!” Genji hurried to his side, leaving Hanzo behind. “Are you sure? That is not–”

Zenyatta reached out to him, though he did not touch Genji, but his hand hovered close to his arm for a second, effectively stopping him. “These nanomachines have been actively attempting to take over my body. If they are reverted to a blank state, I will be able to fight them. But…” he turned to look at Winston, shoulders set. “I will need a few hours to rest first. I would like to recover a bit of my powers before we do this.”

Winston blinked. “I am not sure if Transcendence will react with my tools and machinery, we have not tested that in the lab…”

“No, I have not recovered enough to do that so soon –but I want to be able to activate Harmony during this experiment to make sure the nanites will not act up.”

“Ah. Alright, then.” Winston looked around, awkward, and took a step back. “Athena will–” the cables connected to Zenyatta dropped away from him with a few soft clicks. “–yes, thank you Athena.”

Zenyatta slowly stood up. “Do you need me to stay here to monitor the monster aura, or am I allowed to retire?”

“Uh… Athena will be able to do so as long as you stay in the base, so if you want to go back to your room…”

“That would be good, thank you. Genji…?” Genji shot up straight like a rod, and Zenyatta chuckled. “You can stay with your brother. I will power down to meditate, so I would not be good company.”

“… ah. Yes. Of course.” Despite feeling somewhat disappointed, Genji offered him a thumbs up. “I’ll see you in a bit, then?”

Genji watched Zenyatta leave the lab, feeling a knot in his throat that he could not explain.

“If you look at him with any more longing, I will have to start calling you Hikoboshi.” Hanzo’s voice startled Genji enough that he dropped the bag of snacks, and he quickly bent down to grab it.

“What do you mean with that?”

“Nothing. I had a long flight, and I have not yet had time to eat. Do you wish to come with me and get some food?” a beat, then Hanzo added “those snacks do not count.”

“You got them for me!”

“That I did, but not for you to gouge yourself on them.”

Rolling his eyes, but with a smile on his lips, Genji tapped one finger against his lips. “There is… a Japanese restaurant nearby that also has takeout. We could get something there.”

“Lead the way then, Genji.”

Still casting a few glances back at where Zenyatta had disappeared to, Genji led Hanzo out of the lab and down the corridor, leaving Winston behind to his tests.

 


	23. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here I am with my weekly update :D i also realised that I kept doing so much of genji being a fumbly dork head over heels so much without touching on what zenyatta feels so there's a little bit of that
> 
> and then something yummy at the end of the fic ;3

**Chapter 22**

Despite his intention to rest and recharge, Zenyatta found himself unable to.

There was a bubbling worry that he could not stifle, and it made difficult to settle down to rest.

During his earlier days at the monastery, Mondatta had taught him how to meditate, how to address the problems that made it hard to focus one by one, accepting them and then seeking a way to solve them before they could find roots in his soul, and over time, Zenyatta had learned how to do it, soothing the Discord within him little by little.

Now, he found himself a student once more, rather than the master he had become.

Acceptance felt slippery, like attempting to grab and hold on a live fish, and something within him recoiled, almost aggressively, whenever he tried.

Yet, if he had to go through whatever Winston had in mind, he needed to find his balance again, as a mind in turmoil would only worsen his situation.

He extended one hand in front of himself, summoning the Harmony from within him, and it answered in a sluggish, slow way, flickering around his orb before fading again as he let go of it.

It was still there, still within his reach, but he did worry that if he did not face his troubles now, it would once again disappear from his grasp, gone from him.

No. He could not let that happen.

With a soft sigh, Zenyatta sat down on the bed, eyes falling on the book Genji had brought him to try and cheer him up, and his core fluttered, the thought of Genji’s kindness soothing his worries for a brief second.

With every passing day, Genji was becoming more and more important, enough that avoiding the thought of it was going to become a problem if he didn’t address that soon, and as that was the least pressing among Zenyatta’s worries, he chose to start with that.

Genji was… important, to him.

It was not simply because he had, essentially, helped Zenyatta keep going, back when they’d met for the first time. It was… more than that. Even before putting a name next to the mask of the Green sentai, Genji had helped Zenyatta find himself again.

He was someone Zenyatta had grown to care for, more than a sentai, or a hero.

Genji was… kind, and funny, and helpful. Zenyatta had seen him strive to do his best even against the impossible, and then, he’d believed in Zenyatta when no one else had wanted to, sticking to his side even against his fellow rangers, becoming the anchor Zenyatta had not realised he’d so sorely needed.

And he made Zenyatta laugh, with his earnest attitude, eager to make him feel at home, fighting his own reaction to Zenyatta’s aura to be by his side, always.

It could have been a stupid reason to fall for a person, simply because it was the first time Zenyatta had been treated so kindly since he’d become a monster, but that was not it, or at least, he hoped his own feelings were not this shallow.

He thought about his exchanges with Green sentai, how he’d managed to make him listen so many times, only to watch him retreat whenever his friends appeared, yet still willing to see the best in everyone, even a monster.

He thought about Genji’s expression when he’d visited, the first night Zenyatta had spent at the base, his open, raw face as he had explained about his nightmares. He had sought him out without second thoughts, the stress lines on his face fading as he spoke, as Zenyatta helped him through some breathing exercises, falling asleep on the bed in the room, somehow feeling secure in Zenyatta’s presence enough to rest.

He thought about how long he had stared at his face, then, wondering how they had managed to become friends.

He thought about the wrinkle on Genji’s forehead whenever he mentioned his old mentor, Gabriel, and how worried he was after so long without speaking with him. How worried Genji was about Angela, about Lucio and Hana, about his team.

He thought about the fond smile he had whenever Zenyatta said something funny.

They’d had so little time to know one another, and yet…

And yet, Zenyatta needed to address the fact that he harboured feelings for him, nonetheless.

Zenyatta sighed to himself.

It would go nowhere, of course. Not when Zenyatta was…

Still, the feelings existed, and he did not care if they were returned or not, or how much his core had fluttered when he’d realised he and Angela were not a couple –simply being near Genji made him happy, and that was the most content he had been in forever.

He would take this, unrequited and one-sided as it was, and be content, because no matter how this situation was going to get resolved, Zenyatta would have to leave. Even if he could never turn back to the way he had been, even if he would remain a monster for the rest of his life, he could not stay in this city forever, not when… not when the monastery would be better, safer.

And that brought Zenyatta to the next, painful problem.

He’d always believed in the fact that true self was without form –that his soul, and all Zenyatta was, had no set shape, and that it was bigger than his corporeal form. He felt that every time he touched the Iris, every time he Transcended, or used Harmony, or even Discord.

He stretched the limitations of his body and became one with the world.

Yet… he could still feel ill about his transformation.

This shape, twisted as it was, felt wrong. If he thought about it, about the monster DNA that was now part of him, he felt… sick. This was not normal, not of this world, not even part of the Iris and its design.

This alien thing that had changed him was not something he could accept of himself.

Now, he was something else, almost misshapen, changed into a creature that frightened others, even without an aura to scare them away. That had shaken the foundations of Zenyatta’s beliefs, reminded him that he was not as secure or untouchable as he’d thought he was.

He had thought he was finally growing to be at peace with his new form, despite everything, but…

Mondatta had shown him a photo of his old self, and just like that, Zenyatta had lost that security.

He disliked this form, and what it meant. The thought that within him was something partially alien, so foreign he could not even parse those monsters’ Harmony and Discord, troubled him. The fear that it could make him change further, turn him different, so that he would never be able to be himself again…

That scared him, and the tests he had done with Winston showed that this fear was real.

Zenyatta hummed softly, the sound vibrating deep in his chest, low, at a volume that human ears would find hard to hear, and focused himself, folding his legs and forming a lotus, index and thumb connected together.

He felt his servos, his circuits, his body respond as he fell into meditation, synching his body processes with the low hum.

There truly was something unnatural inside his body, but… he was doing his best to live despite that. He still helped others, he still retained his mind. The nanomachines in his body were… part of him now, and he would tame the extra ones, soon. He could live even with that, and surely, there was a way to at least safely remove the monstrous DNA from him.

Zenyatta could weather this. He had done well until now, by himself, but… the sentai rangers were by his side, and… and Genji, as well.

Slowly, he reined control over his emotions, and his worries. He accepted the Discord without pushing it down, facing his fear and allowing himself to soothe it.

It would not be gone, it could not, but… he was able to reassure himself and accept that whatever would come, he would face it at the right time.

He was not alone.

Finally, Zenyatta found himself falling deeper into meditation, welcoming the soothing presence of the Iris.

***

“You do not seem at ease.”

Genji swallowed a piece of sashimi, savouring the taste before wiping a smear of soy sauce from his chin, and shrugged.

They had ended up walking a short way to the sushi place, ordering take away before returning to the base, and though Genji had welcomed his brother’s company with happiness, reunited after a few months of just phone calls and e-mails, Hanzo was not blind.

There was a tension in Genji’s shoulders that he could not hide, at least not from him.

“Just… lots of things on my mind.”

“… is it about your friend, Zenyatta?”

Genji winced –a small, instinctive motion, and Hanzo snorted. “Well. I mean… I just…”

“You are worried. I can understand. By what you’ve told me, he has had an eventful year.” Genji was the one to snort at that, his lips curling up in a small, wry smile. “Genji, did you think I would fault you for worrying over a friend?”

“No, of course not. I know you spend a lot of time worrying over your team, like I do with mine, but…” Genji shrugged, unable to put what he was thinking into words. “He’s not part of the team, and I know he’s capable, I mean, he saved my butt–” Hanzo lifted both eyebrows “–but I just… feel like I’m not doing enough. I can’t do shit to make him feel at ease, and my team is not at ease either. And now Winston said…”

“I was there. I do remember, though, that Zenyatta agreed to it. It seemed like the correct choice, as well.” Hanzo picked up a slice of sashimi in his hashi –Genji had laughed at the sight, as they were Hanzo’s personally engraved chopsticks that he carried with him wherever he went– and ate it, pausing to savour the taste before speaking again. “Are you this worried simply because he is your friend, or is there something more there?”

Genji fumbled with a piece of sushi, almost dropping it in the soy sauce plate, and stared at his brother with such distraught expression Hanzo found himself chuckling. “Hanzo!” Genji exhaled loudly, shoving the piece of sushi in his mouth and chewing slowly on it. “There is nothing more to it. He’s my friend! Nothing else!”

“Forgive me,” Hanzo’s lips tilted up in a small smile, but he hid it behind his water bottle as he took a sip. “I thought you would feel personally responsible for his plight, as you are a hero and he is in such dire need of your help, not to mention you might feel… indebted due to him having saved your life. My bad. You have been so intent to make him feel at ease, it’s commendable.”

Genji faltered, fingers frozen in mid-air as he reached for his own drink. “O-oh. Yeah. That’s… yes, that’s understandable. I mean, it’s… wrong, because Zenyatta is… he’s a good person, and I like him, and we’re friends and I just want to see him happy because he deserves it, I don’t feel –it’s not– it’s not an obligation _at all_.”

“Hmm.”

Hanzo did not say anything, picking yet another piece of sushi from the plate, but the look he shot Genji was telling enough, and Genji felt oddly chastised, though he had no idea why.

He also felt silly –he had thought Hanzo was implying he had a crush on Zenyatta, just like Hana had, but. No, that was just Genji being far too defensive over the situation. His brother knew better –or well, he had not been around at all, there was nothing for him to even make a connection.

Because there was no connection. Genji was not–

Definitely not.

It was Hana’s fault, really, for even considering the notion. Though –it was not because Zenyatta had the appearance of a monster, that would have been shallow, and Genji was not…

Zenyatta had been extremely cute, before his transformation, but his attitude, his charisma –these were things Genji knew from the Zenyatta of now. There would have been no reason not to fall for him, because he was just…

Zenyatta was just…

Still, that did not mean Genji liked him in a romantic way, but _not_ because of his looks. In fact, he did not really find him… well. There was a certain appeal even like this, though that was also not because of Hana’s jokes or anything.

Genji looked down at his food, conflicted and suddenly cornered. It was Hana’s fault for getting him to overthink everything, because he had not thought anything of that sort before she’d started her teasing, and now he continued to return to the thought, wondering just why she’d think that.

He shoved a rather large piece of temaki sushi in his mouth, stuffing it full, uncaring about his eating manners since he was alone with his brother.

“Zenyatta, I see you have decided to join us again.”

Startled out of his thoughts, Genji spun around, eyes wide as he scrambled up to his feet, only to realise he’d a mouthful of food bulging out of his cheek and he hurried to swallow that, even as he saw Zenyatta enter the common area, almost hesitantly. “Zen–” he coughed to get the rest of his food down. “Zenyatta! Weren’t you resting?”

“I feel rested enough. It’s been over an hour already, and…” Zenyatta seemed to hesitate, hands folding in front of him. “I think waiting too much will make me _think_ too much.”

It was as much of a confession as he could afford himself to say, though both Genji and Hanzo understood about his hesitance at once. Genji resolutely moved to his side, the impulse to reach out for him so strong it almost made him forget Zenyatta’s touch aversion, but the knowledge that Hanzo was looking helped him stop before he embarrassed himself again.

“I will be there, and if it’s too much, we can always ask Winston to stop. You don’t have to…” he hesitated, thinking about Mondatta’s words. “You don’t have to always be brave, you know? It’s okay to be afraid and to say no. No one would judge you for that.”

“I know, but… there is too much of me that is not… me, as of now. There are already nanomachines in my body that are not supposed to be there, and the monster DNA that changed me. These new ones are out of control, and if there is a chance to eliminate this problem, I need to…” Zenyatta shook his head. “I wish I could talk to my brother, first, but with Moira there, I would not be free to say what I want.”

This time, Genji acted on impulse, forgetting about Hanzo’s presence and about everything. He shifted closer, slowly enough that Zenyatta could see him approach and move away if it was too much, and just as slowly, he placed one hand on Zenyatta’s arm, close to his wrist.

He felt him jolt under his touch, but did not move away, though he tilted his head in such a sharp, surprised way that Genji could almost feel his shock wash over him.

“I am sorry. I know you wish Master Mondatta could be here, and I’m sorry you only get me and that bothersome person who is my brother but… you’re not alone, alright? You can count on me. I won’t let you be there by yourself.”

Zenyatta made a small, weird sound –like a glitch, or a hiccup– and nodded, though under Genji’s hand he felt his servo grow warm.

“Yes.” His voice sounded a bit stilted, and Genji let go of his arm, apprehensive about overstepping, but Zenyatta took a deep, artificial breath. “I am sure you find it annoying, for me to be always thanking you, but I do not know how else to show… how much I truly appreciate all you are doing for me, Genji. Redundant as it might be, it is all I can do, so… thank you. Your presence is nothing short of welcome for me, and…” Zenyatta hesitated, fans spinning just a little faster, though Genji thought that to be embarrassment, “it makes me happy. So… yes. Thank you.”

Genji’s heart did a tiny, surprised jolt, aching like he’d been struck all of sudden by something heavy, like there was something he wished to do but he knew not what, and it must have shown in his expression somehow, because Zenyatta giggled, a little, and tilted his head towards the door. “We should go see Winston now. I would very much see this through as soon as possible.”

Genji made to follow, but Hanzo’s hand on his shoulder stopped him. “Wha–”

“Genji.” Hanzo leaned closer, his expression almost closed off. Genji blinked, unsure what he wanted, and then– “perhaps you should consider wiping your mouth if you wish to make such bold statements. You have rice all over your face.”

Genji’s eyes widened in shock, the idea that Zenyatta had seen him like this filling him with mortification. “Hanzo! Why didn’t you _stop_ me?!”

The look he got from his brother was a mist of a disgruntled tilt of his upper lip and an expression that could be liberally translated as ‘duh’, to which Genji quickly wiped his mouth, cheeks aflame, and hurried to follow Zenyatta out of the common room.

Hanzo shook his head, looking after his brother with a soft, fond look before he also followed him to the lab.

***

“Uhm, alright. So…” Winston looked at the screen of his computer, then, back at Zenyatta. “We should… proceed. Yes.”

Zenyatta was strapped again to the table, secured by the cables connected to Athena, but this time he was sitting on the table rather than laying down on it, his legs dangling off its edge.

At first he’d thought about sitting in his usual lotus pose, but Winston had suggested to sit normally in case his body twitched out of control, as it would dislodge the cables and possibly disconnect him, which would have been not ideal, considering what they were about to do.

Winston was not the only one who looked uncomfortable, though –Genji was sure he would jump out of his skin any time now, so worried and on edge even his brother’s presence at his side did nothing to calm him down.

“That is fine by me. Should I brace myself?” despite the situation, Zenyatta sounded almost amused, though it only made Genji worry more.

“Ah. Uh… no, not… we cannot risk you lowering your sensitivity during this as it might interfere with the correct realignment of the nanomachines, but… I think if you can maintain the concentration through this, you should… do that… thing you do, with your Harmony. Alright. Athena, have you set the calibrations correctly?”

“Yes. Based on the nanomachines we already sampled from Zenyatta’s body, we can exclude them from the experiment. The others are new and not fully activated, so they will be the only ones affected by this. Should I begin the irradiation?”

Winston took a step back, and pressed a button on the computer.

At once, a thin barrier, not at all dissimilar from D.Va’s barriers, flickered into view, separating Zenyatta from the others. Genji made a soft, startled sound. “What–”

“The irradiation is specific to the nanomachines within Zenyatta, but he needs to be confined by himself so the nanomachines will only feel his presence, not us. We would not want them to rise from him and try to attack us instead.”

Slumping a little, Genji nodded.

“I will be alright, Genji.” Zenyatta offered him a small thumbs up, and it looked so weird coming from him, tentacles and purple metal and ominous appearance, that Genji could not help a small snicker.

“Athena, start phase one.”

At once, the machines behind Winston started to vibrate and make a continuous, weird sound –Genji winced, his senses a little more developed than those of normal humans due to his connection with his dragon, and despite himself he took a step back, bumping into Hanzo, who looked as annoyed by the sound as he was.

It was a bit like a low-tune whistle, but the kind that sounded so low it was almost the impression of a sound, rather than a sound by itself. Genji shook his head, lips curling up in distaste.

“Alright there, Zenyatta?”

Winston was looking at the screen of the computer, apparently undisturbed by the sound, and Genji peeked above his shoulder to look at the image of the nanomachines inside Zenyatta. The waves were not visible in the image, but he continued to watch, hoping for a clue of what was going on–

“Oh.” Zenyatta’s shoulders jolted a little, and the motion was repeated by the silhouette on the screen. Genji’s head snapped back towards him. “Something… feels…” he fell quiet, leaving whatever he’d meant to say unfinished.

His shoulders hunched a little bit lower, and Genji, ever attentive, saw him clench his hands down on the edge of the table he was sitting on. That was the only hint he had that Zenyatta was, in fact, not alright.

“Zenyatta–” he took a step forwards, but Hanzo’s hand fell on his shoulder, halting him. “Is it hurting?”

Zenyatta did not answer, and for a moment Genji felt a spike of fear. There was no outward reaction that something was happening, and he could not understand the screen enough to tell if something had–

Then Zenyatta, very slowly, turned to look at him. His forehead array was dim, dimmer than ever before. “It…” his synth glitched, a small hiccup. Again, he fell silent, and Genji’s worry washed over him with such force it took his breath away.

“Winston–”

Hanzo interrupted him. “Winston, if you could please explain what is happening, so Genji might stop worrying himself sick.”

Genji could have elbowed him, but he could feel a spike of tension in his brother’s voice that showed he was not as uncaring as he might have seemed.

“Ah! Forgive me–” Winston turned around, noticing Genji’s pale face. “The irradiation at this point is not painful by itself, don’t worry. In order to prepare the nanomachines for the reprogramming, we need to slow them down –unfortunately, due to the nature of the nanites, the other ones inside Zenyatta are also responding to that, so his body processes have slowed down.”

“What do you mean slow–”

Zenyatta observed them talk, feeling somewhat distant and separate from his body.

His thought processes felt sluggish, his body suddenly heavier than it had ever been before. He understood, in part, what was happening –the warnings flashing past his brain were clear on the matter– but he reacted to it as if it was happening to someone else.

He could feel the vibration of the irradiation hit his processes, the sound coming from the machines almost hypnotic, like a wave of heat that made the air around him feel thick and warm.

The nanomachines inside his body buzzed, but even their reactions seemed slower, and though he was holding himself up, he almost swayed, the weight of his body making him wish he had been laying down instead.

“–they are reacting as they should,” Winston continued, sounding pleased. “Look, the activity is dropping down to sixty-three percent. This will lull the nanites inside Zenyatta’s body into a state of rest, and synch the irradiation wavelength with the nanomachines we need to work with. Sixty-percent now… Athena, what should be a safe parameter to start the next phase?”

“Fifty percent or less.”

Zenyatta made a small, disgruntled sound as he found his head tilting down, his line of sight sliding away from Genji and to the floor in front of him, too heavy now. His shoulders slouched further, but the cables tensed and kept him still, not allowing him to fall off the table.

At the edge of his vision, he could see the pink and white sparkles travelling from the base of the table and through the cables connecting him with Athena, and felt the point of connection heat up further.

The irradiation felt like a drug, almost –his body so heavy it was unresponsive, and the nanomachines slowing down inside of him. Zenyatta knew he was meant to stay aware and awake, but with his processes slowed down, he found his attention drifting, thoughts coming out jumbled.

He thought about Genji’s worried face, and…

He was glad he’d been able to see him and get to know him.

Zenyatta wondered how it would feel to stretch one hand to him and caress his cheek, not fearing the intense sensations brought forth by that touch, or lean closer still, reassure him, and–

“Fifty percent. Athena, phase two.”

Zenyatta felt the air around him change.

For a moment, nothing changed, and he still floated within his mind, trapped in a confused, warm lull.

It started with a weird sensation in the middle of his chest, where his core was. It tingled pleasantly, static flickering across his circuits, and with it, Zenyatta felt his processes react, still as slow as before, but with a weird, cross intensity, and… and…

The tingling expanded across his chest, and though Zenyatta had never felt ticklish, nor did he quite know how that feeling was like, he had the impulse to touch his chest and push the tingling away somehow, physically reach within himself to stop it.

Only he couldn’t –his arms were as heavy as before, and unresponsive, fingers clenched around the table’s edge, servos refusing to answer his signals for them to move.

He must have made some kind of sound, because he heard Genji’s voice call his name. “Are you alright?”

“I–it…” even his voice seemed to be affected, a grating, metallic sound making his synth waver. “… f-feels weird.”

Automatic scans flashed past his vision, telling him that some unauthorized processes seemed to be working through his system, but he dismissed the warnings, aware of what was happening.

He tried to ignore the tingling feeling, but it was difficult, and with every passing moment, the feeling bubbled up stronger, and Zenyatta found his focus wavering, despite his attempts.

There was an edge of panic crawling up to him, easily bypassing his usual tight control because his mind felt hazy.

“Genji?” though his voice was not quite as steady as he would have liked, it was good enough. “Could you please… talk?”

He could not see Genji’s expression since his head was tilted down, but he felt, vaguely, his confusion. “Wh- oh, yes! Sure! Uh–” for a second, he could tell Genji was panicking, trying to come up with something to say. “Did you know when I was little, I was afraid of horses?”

The subject was so absurd, Zenyatta almost laughed, even with the increasingly annoying sensation in his chest.

It was not… growing any easier to deal with it. It felt like it was burning its way through his circuits, the nanites becoming agitated. One by one, he felt them light up, able to point out which were reacting to the irradiation and which did not.

The tingling was not just distracting anymore, it was getting painful, little bursts of pain that popped inside him, and Zenyatta’s synth crackled with a gasp, though he had been trying not to let the others see how much this was affecting him.

“–and then my father, I remember that, thought it would be funny to get me a plastic pony to practice with–”

Genji’s voice pierced through his muddled thoughts, acting like an anchor against the pain, louder after Zenyatta’s pained gasp, and Zenyatta’s mind turned to it, desperate to find an outlet that was not concentrating on the pain.

He could feel the nanomachines react, angry against the sound and the vibration and the irradiation, fighting to keep their original purpose, even when their activation was put on hold by Zenyatta’s own nanites and his Transcendence, and he felt them surge from within him, crawling from where they had taken residence to bubble on the surface of his body instead.

He heard, vaguely, Genji gasp in shock, and Zenyatta was glad he could not see his expression, because what he could see of his own chest was not…

The nanomachines corroded his chassis, attempting to eat at his body to counter the attack, desperate to gain strength by assaulting their host, and Zenyatta _felt_ the metal of his frame dissolve, the sensors thankfully melting away before they could register more pain.

“Zeny–” Genji’s voice rose in panic, but something muffled the sound, and then he seemed to calm down, his voice taking a discordant, strident tone as he tried, with little success, to sound unaffected. “Ah–and well, it… it didn’t work because… even the plastic pony, you see, was bigger than I was, and it was scary and I was… really a small kid you see, Zenyatta? I ran from it screaming, and–”

“–and mother had to let you sleep in their bed for a week,” Hanzo’s voice piped in, steely and collected, and Zenyatta thought that he was grateful Genji’s brother was there, even when his own brother could not be.

Mondatta–

“Ha ha, yeah, that was. Embarrassing, but also! She did not let you join and you were _so_ angry–” despite the fun tale, Genji’s voice still shook, and Zenyatta felt bad –he was such a good person, it was clear he hurt for Zenyatta, but…

His body sang with the pain, his nanomachines reacting to the attack by pushing back, rebuilding, slowly, his chassis inch by inch. He had never gone under such a state of damage before, and it would have been shocking if he’d not been in enough pain that nothing else seemed to matter.

Trapped inside his own body, still so heavy and unresponsive he could not move an inch, not even look up from the floor, Zenyatta fought to keep his mind steady against the pain.

He had felt worse –the rewriting of his body by the nanites was worse than this, but…

Zenyatta’s forehead array flickered and powered off, and his optical receptors also flickered, though they managed to stay online –and thankfully so did his auricular ones.

Processes got culled to make room for fighting the nanomachines, and Zenyatta must have made another helpless sound, because Genji’s voice pitched high again.

“You’re doing good, okay? You really are. Winston says–” a pause, and Winston grunted and took over.

“The process is working. I know you can hear me, Zenyatta. It is _working_ so far.”

Zenyatta’s synth made a garbled sound of agreement, before it dissolved into a whimper.

He could not escape, and he could not focus on meditation to avoid the pain, and with every wave he felt the nanomachines within him cede, little by little, while the ones he controlled seemed to gain an inch.

Slowly, the hole in his chassis closed back up, sensors rebuilt and active, his core glowing a dark, deep green as the tentacles around his mouth piece wriggled and writhed in place.

Through it all, Genji’s voice continued to speak about inane matters –the first time Genji had managed to pat a horse’s head, only to run away screaming when the animal had tried to eat his hair. Hanzo’s attempts to drag his brother to meet increasingly bigger farm animals in hopes he could link them to the horses and stop being afraid. The fact that, over fifteen years later, Genji was still afraid to face a horse, nonetheless.

Zenyatta focused on that, on Genji’s voice keeping him aware despite the pain, through the slow depletion of his battery, fighting against the pain that continued to be a constant in his chest, for long, painstaking minutes, ticking by so slowly Zenyatta started to feel them hum, second by second, through his core and the circuits in his head.

Until finally, after what felt like forever, the pain faltered.

It took Zenyatta a few minutes to notice, his mind so tired out and confused that he could still feel the pain throb through his body, but his fingers twitched from where he was clutching the table’s edge, and he distantly became aware that the pain was receding.

Genji stopped talking all of sudden, and through the fog of Zenyatta’s mind, Athena’s voice vibrated through their connection, clearer than any external sound.

“Zenyatta, can you hear me?”

He could not find the energy to answer, not vocally, but he sent out a binary answer through their link, and felt Athena hum happily.

“The nanomachines stopped resisting. We did it. They have been wiped clean, and are–”

There was another sudden wave of pain, and Zenyatta choked on air he did not need. Rewritten and wiped clean of their previous setup, the nanomachines inside him clicked online again, and Zenyatta’s nanites answered by swarming around them, ready to assimilate the enemy into them.

Pain filtered through the haze of the fatigue as Zenyatta realised, belatedly, that if he allowed this process to go through unsupervised, it would be again like the last time he’d been turned, and his consciousness rose in denial.

Light burst through from the depths of his chest, Harmony blossoming so quickly from him in response that he miscalculated, his control slipping through the cracks.

Zenyatta was enveloped in bright, golden light –not Transcendence, as his limitations still prevented him from working through a second one this soon, but bright enough to be almost blinding.

Athena gasped in shock, the bubbling light extending from Zenyatta’s processes and through their bond, the screens of her AI fizzing offline for a split second, data and coding sending a single directive through them as Harmony burned its way out of Zenyatta’s frame, encompassing him and the table, and making the defensive matrix barrier around him falter and disappear.

Harmony soothed the pain instantly, snuffing it out before it could do damage, the warmth of the Iris seeking to aid the nanomachines inside Zenyatta as they attacked the enemy clusters.

The external nanites had no chance to fight, and with a single, waning ripple, they bowed and were absorbed by the rest of Zenyatta’s body.

Zenyatta’s processes sped up all at once, the effect of the irradiation fading under the light of Harmony, and he let out a gasp as his body unfroze, fingers slipping from the edge of the table as he jolted up, forehead array powering up and optical receptors seeking out Winston, then Genji.

The Harmony dimmed and ceased, the Iris light fading back inside his body, and Zenyatta exhaled, realising there was no more pain, his body aching in strain but not in agony.

“It seems like it worked!” Winston sounded extremely pleased, the aura around him thick with relief and a shade of guilt. Behind him, the screens were filled with graphs and detailed lists of numbers.

“Zenyatta!” Genji shook off Hanzo’s hand from his shoulder and darted towards him, and though Zenyatta was far too tired to do much, he hummed and lifted one hand in a weak greeting. “How do you feel? Is everything alright?”

Genji had been unable to move, Hanzo keeping him from dashing to Zenyatta the moment he’d heard the first sound of pain coming from his friend, but when the Harmony had blossomed through, golden surrounding the green light of Zenyatta’s core, expanding enough that the barrier around him had disintegrated, Genji had felt part of his worry fade away in relief.

The Iris –he had seen it before, had felt that warmth on his body– would not let Zenyatta get hurt any further, and the warmth radiating from him had soothed Genji’s frantic panic, allowing him to relax, if only a fraction.

Now, finally able to get close to Zenyatta, Genji found himself at loss.

His body felt on edge, with enough pent up energy to make him unable to stand still, moving his weight from one foot to the other, hands clenched around one another to prevent himself from reaching out to Zenyatta.

He wanted to –he wanted to hug him, because during the whole thing, he’d wanted nothing else but hold him and take away the pain, and he knew he could not even get close, and that had been _worse_.

But now he was there, in front of him, and looked fine, if tired, and Genji–

“I’m sorry–” words bubbled out of his mouth without him meaning to, the guilt urging him to talk. “I couldn’t do anything to make it better but… you’re alright now? How does it feel? Are the nanites–”

“It is alright, Genji.” Zenyatta did sound tired, his voice tilting weirdly, still sluggish, almost lethargic. “You helped. You talked to me. I could focus somewhere else, not on the pain. Your voice helped.”

Genji shivered, still burning with the need to do something, and then–

Zenyatta lifted one hand, very gently, and for the first time since they’d known one another, reached out to him, slowly, and touched the back of Genji’s hand.

Genji froze at the touch, unable to comprehend the magnitude of that action, his chest hurting so much he felt it would burn him whole.

“Thank you.” Zenyatta murmured.

Then, he swayed to the side, the cables connected with his body disengaging from him, but without them he was unable to hold himself up, and Genji reacted instantly, reaching out to keep him from tumbling off the table.

He did not know if Zenyatta was too tired to react to the touch or simply did not feel it, but his chassis was hot under his touch, his fans kicking in to regulate his temperature, and he looked ready to power down, the tentacles around his mouth piece slack and unmoving.

“I think…” Zenyatta hesitated, and his forehead array dimmed again. “I might require the rest of the night to recuperate. Forgive me.”

And with that, he slumped over, full weight on Genji’s arms, powering down into resting mode, leaving Genji to fret as he shifted Zenyatta’s body until he was pressed flush against his left side. He looked up at Hanzo, hoping to get some help, but he found his brother shaking his head with a small, relieved smile, and even Winston seemed content, rubbing his face and pushing his glasses out of the way.

“Wh– what should I–” Genji looked back down at Zenyatta’s frame, then back up.

They were so close, but he couldn’t see Zenyatta’s face plate like this, only the back of his hood, and Zenyatta’s weight was heavy and warm against him.

“It should be alright to leave him there. He will recharge and power up on his own in the morning, hopefully.” Winston pointed one finger at the door. “We will seal the lab in case it takes longer, and keep his processes under check to make sure there is no negative reaction to the nanites shift. But I think… we’re done.”

Genji nodded.

A few seconds passed slowly, until Winston cleared his throat and Hanzo raised a single eyebrow.

“Well?”

Genji jolted, realising he had yet to move, the unfamiliar yet comforting weight of Zenyatta’s frame still pressed snugly against his side, and quickly arranged Zenyatta’s unconscious body down on the table, backing away a split second later, cheeks burning so much he almost felt lightheaded.

For a moment he’d forgotten he needed to leave Zenyatta there, as part of him did not want to go, not even for a second –not when Zenyatta wasn’t even conscious, though he would not know if Genji was there or not, and yet…

He looked down at his face plate, forehead array powered off, core glowing softly like a heartbeat, tentacles slack; there was something powerful gnawing at his insides. Even unconscious, Zenyatta looked intense, and Genji wondered, idly, if the tentacles on Zenyatta’s mouth piece would tickle if he kissed him.

It took him exactly one second to realise what he’d just thought, and then all his thoughts halted, a jolt of shock travelling up his spine like current.

Oh.

… oh.

_‘Shit.’_

 


	24. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello yes, i would like to say i need to take another week off because i have a lot of things to do and i need to map out what is going to happen in the next few chapters, as you will see soon :D
> 
> send over your thoughts on this chapter though! :D :D :D
> 
> so yes, sorry about that. u_u tune in not next week but the one after that! thank you for always being understanding ;m;

**Chapter 23**

Genji could not sleep.

Despite having had a long day, and the worry that had kept him high-strung until the experiments on Zenyatta ended, which should have knocked him out cold now that everything was resolved… Genji found out, much to his chagrin, that no –he was unable to fall asleep.

As he could do nothing now that Zenyatta was resting in the lab, completely out of it, Genji had also retired to his room after a hasty wave at his brother and Winston, needing some time to sort out his thoughts.

Most of them about Zenyatta.

He had wanted to kiss him. Just like that.

The thought had been so sudden and unexpected that Genji still had trouble wrapping his mind around it, his first instinct that of denial. It was not like he was crushing on him. It was not like the time he’d fallen for that cute girl at the pub or that one hot guy he’d shared classes with, who had also been seriously in love with the sentai rangers (though, much to Genji’s disappointment, his favourite had been Blue sentai, not Green). These had been… obvious crushes, strengthened over time by Genji getting to know them, flirting and every now and then, ending up on a date or two. Most of which ended pretty well, because Genji was just _that_ good.

This was… nothing like any of those.

So, it was easy to just blame Hana for this. She had poked fun at him for the longest time, making him fool himself, making Genji doubt his feelings for Zenyatta, when they were clearly just friends, getting him confused about them and then… then…

Except that he couldn’t, truthfully, blame her for all that.

She could make fun of him all she wanted –and she did, _often_ – but Genji’s feelings for people were always remarkably honest. If he liked someone, he wanted to spend time with them, and he could not deny he enjoyed being around Zenyatta. And making him happy, because his laughter was something incredibly special.

And making sure he was safe, and protected, and content. Being by his side, chatting about everything and nothing –Zenyatta’s past in the Shambali, or his interests, trying to find something in common that both could enjoy, or Genji himself talking about his own life– Genji felt some kind of kinship with him, and it made him…

Zenyatta’s presence did make him happy.

They were friends, and Genji could not ask for more, except… he had. He’d wanted to _kiss_ him.

He could not deny that either, so… why was it so difficult to admit he could like Zenyatta, even in the safety of his own mind?

His thoughts returned to the lab, to Zenyatta slumped against his side, to the way he’d reached out to touch Genji, and his heart clenched in his chest, the same ache he had felt then returning again, softened by the memory but still strong. Every time Genji had offered Zenyatta comfort, he had done so by leaving Zenyatta the choice to back down, making sure he was alright with the touch, but for Zenyatta to reach back to him this time, so easily…

Genji had been so happy.

He wanted to be able to do what Mondatta had done, hug Zenyatta to his chest and never let him go and… and he did, in fact, still want to kiss him.

Just that idea made Genji’s cheeks burn, and he buried his face into a pillow, groaning softly into it.

If he was attracted to Zenyatta, did that make his attempts to touch him less well-intentioned?

The thought made him freeze, stealing his breath away. He still wanted to make Zenyatta grow accustomed to touch again, and when Mondatta left, he would be the only one able to help with that, but…

Was he doing it for Zenyatta, or was he doing it because he sort of possibly liked him? If Hana was right and it had just taken him this long to realise he liked Zenyatta –and how long? He was not normally this… dense, how did Hana notice before he did? Was it that obvious? How had she known? Who else had?– then did it mean he’d always just wanted to reach out and he was really just an asshole?

“Genji.”

Athena’s voice startled him enough that he jolted up from the pillow, and almost slipped off the bed.

“Your thoughts are practically loud enough for me to hear them.” She sounded amused, and Genji groaned.

“Yes, make fun of me and my misfortune. Meanwhile I’ll just bury myself in my bed and never come out again.”

“That would make your brother annoyed, though.” Athena paused for a moment, then added, her voice teasing, “and Zenyatta would be sad, too.”

This time, Genji made a long, drawled out sound. “Not you as well! Why is everybody convinced I like Zenyatta? I mean–” Genji’s cheeks were still red, and he looked everywhere, disliking the fact that Athena could see him but he did not have somewhere to look at to talk with her. “I… I might but. I mean–”

“Genji,” Athena sounded like she was going to impart him with some kind of deep, life changing knowledge. “It’s just that when you look at him… you just have _that_ look.”

The pillow distinctly looked like it would be good to use to suffocate himself and avoid this entire talk. “What look?”

Athena’s laughter echoed in the air, though Genji could tell she was not laughing at him, at least. “It’s the look Angela has whenever Fareeha comes to pick her up for a date. _That_ look.”

Blinking slowly, Genji looked down at his hands. Angela did have a particular look whenever Fareeha was around –her smile was just a little softer, and even if she was still as tired as always, she even looked more relaxed, more at ease. But Angela was head over the heels for Fareeha, and they’d been dating for a year, after being friends for longer than that.

He’d known Zenyatta for barely two weeks, it was stupid to think he could just be crushing _that_ hard.

Except…

Except he’d known Zenyatta for longer, though before that he had been the Cultist. And Genji had been a little interested in him even then –in his snarky attitude and his cryptic wording and is attempts to talk with the sentai, sometimes sounding like he was offering him advice like some kind of guru… which made sense since Zenyatta was a monk of the Shambali. He _had_ been intrigued for months, interested in clashing with him while others had tried to dissuade him.

He’d been right anyway. Zenyatta had been good all along.

Well, that sort of explained why Hana had been so convinced he was crushing on Zenyatta.

That had been then, but afterwards he’d met Zenyatta, not the Cultist. He had learned about him, about the omnic trapped inside that monster, and… and…

And Genji _really_ liked him.

He really did. To the point of spending so much time with him and wanting to spend even more, and listen to him laugh and…

Genji felt his cheeks heat up again, and promptly smashed the pillow into his face.

“You are ridiculous, Genji,” Athena told him, and he nodded, the pillow still hiding his expression.

“Yes, I am perfectly aware, thank you.” The words came out muffled, but he didn’t care.

Just thinking about kissing Zenyatta made him feel like he was on top of a rollercoaster, and he guessed that spoke enough of his attraction.

“If you wish, I’ll make sure to prepare pillows around the base for whenever you’re around Zenyatta now.”

“Athena!” Genji pushed the pillow away, glaring at a non-descriptive spot on the wall in front of him. “I can work my way around that without a pillow or anything, just like I do _all the time_. I am a mature, respectable person who is also a sentai–”

“–and who is blushing like a teenager because of his crush.”

“It doesn’t even matter –he has bigger things to worry about than…” Genji sighed, the fluttery feeling in his chest fading as he considered why Zenyatta was at the base. “I’m not going to say anything, if you’re about to ask. He’d got a lot of things more important than a guy with a stupid crush anyway.”

“It could help him feel a little less like a monster if he knew you liked him.”

Athena’s sharp insight startled Genji enough that it left him speechless. He opened his mouth but no sound left his lips, strangled before it could come out.

Zenyatta was… he’d been treated like a monster for over a year, he had been alone for this long, and he was clearly relieved and thankful for Genji’s attempts at friendship, and Genji did not want to ruin that either, because he might like him, but… Zenyatta was special. And kind. And unfortunately in the middle of things bigger than him, bigger than both of them.

But Genji also wondered if adding his own feelings could make Zenyatta feel pressured to accept them, even if he did not return them.

After all, Genji was also the first person, other than his brother and the Shambali, who could be around him long enough to hold a conversation. If he did not like Genji back –and to be fair, Genji did not think he’d given him many reasons to– he might worry that rejecting him could push Genji away.

Not that it would happen –Genji was not…

He was not this petty, and he liked Zenyatta too much to wish to push him away, but then… it might get awkward. Genji knew rejection stung, and the idea of it coming from Zenyatta made him ache, but… he could get over it, because he still wanted to be friends with him.

But if Zenyatta felt guilty for not returning his feelings, if he felt that to be a fault, if, if, if…

It was so much to consider, and a lot of it hinged on the fact that they had to be around one another because of Reaper, and the monsters, and the nanomachines.

If they’d met under any other circumstance, Genji would have…

But no, at least not now.

“I think I need to think this through a little longer.” He was not addressing Athena in particular, more like announcing his own decision to himself out loud, but Athena made a soft, understanding noise.

“It’s your feelings, Genji. You make your choice.”

Genji snorted. “Thank you, Athena.”

She fell silent after that, probably allowing him some privacy, and Genji appreciated that, especially with how her words had rattled him.

He still could not sleep, though, so with a sigh he relented and shuffled out of bed. Maybe Hanzo would not mind sparring with him, if he was still awake.

***

Genji was startled awake by someone poking at his cheek.

He shot up instantly, mind confused and muddled with sleep, only to see Hana and Lucio staring down at him, both smiling.

“Ugh… how long did I…” Genji looked around, and realised he’d fallen asleep in the common area of the base, face buried in the cushions of the couch and a blanket over his shoulders.

The last he remembered was a spar with his brother, but he did not recall ever leaving the training room at all, so it meant Hanzo had to have helped him to the sitting room before retiring as well.

“You look a bit out of it, Genji. Winston briefed us on what happened.” Lucio motioned for Genji to shuffle over and dropped down on the couch at his side, stretching. “Patrolling went fine, we got back late and went to sleep. We thought we’d seen a monster but we were wrong. Weird how it’s been so quiet recently, huh?”

“For the best, with Master Mondatta’s arrival and…” Hana faltered, pushing at Genji’s shoulder and squeezing into the couch together with them. “Say. You awake enough for some serious conversation?”

Genji rubbed at his face. “I don’t need any more prodding about my infatuation with Zenyatta, Hana.”

“No, I did not mean tha– wait, Genji, was that a confess–” Genji’s hand shot out to muffle the rest of Hana’s excited babbling, so she licked his hand and he made a hasty retreat, face cross with disgust. “You said it! You said–!”

“Hana please, it’s too early for that and I admitted nothing!” fighting to keep the flustered embarrassment from showing up on his face, but aware he could just blame it on being tired, Genji groaned, wiped his hand on his shirt, and slumped against the back of the couch. “What did you want to talk about?”

Hana made a weird face then –a little bit of wistful hope that quickly melted into a more somber expression.

“Yes, best leave the good things for later. Genji, listen.” She peeked on Genji’s other side, staring at Lucio, who seemed as perplexed by her as Genji was. “I’ve been thinking. Since… since Zenyatta had that… thing… with you, and the nanomachines attacked… there have been only two minor monster attacks, and one of them was the omnic Zenyatta said was also turned, which he met.”

Genji frowned. “… yeah, I’ve been so worried about Master Mondatta and Moira and Reaper that I did not stop to think that… yeah, we’ve been patrolling all the time, but no monsters. Usually there’s at least one a week considering their standard appearances.”

“That’s what I’ve noticed, and even with the monsters who Zenyatta helped run from us, there were still more he fought on his own, so… I was thinking…” Hana bit down on her lower lip, and Genji leaned forwards a bit, worry gnawing at his insides, “is it possible Reaper has been… facing the monsters instead?”

That… was not what Genji had expected her to say, and it startled him enough that he had to lift one hand to stop her, rubbing the other hand across his eyes.

“… I might be still too sleepy for this. Go through that again?”

“Not in a… hero way. But he has accosted Zenyatta twice, believing him to be a monster, right? And the second time, he tried to trick him with a monster who was not one. It’s clear he wants to catch the Cultist, but like… what if he’s doing the same for other monsters?” Hana gave a careless shrug. “The moment he appears, there’s no more monsters, and he’s really interested in the Cultist. Checks out to me.”

“I… that is…” Lucio tapped both hands on his knees. “We did have to face less monsters. If he’s trying to catch a lot of them, who knows why–”

“We already established we’re not sure if he’s a good or a bad guy, or a neutral vigilante, and since he’s only been seen around Zenyatta, we can’t really talk it out with him either, so we can’t even know if him defeating the monsters, or… you know, capturing them, is a good thing.” Genji groaned, feeling the frustration he’d tried to avoid all week build up again. “But…”

By the somber frown the three of them shared, it was obvious they were all thinking the same thing –even if it was a rogue hero’s work, even if Reaper was not some kind of villain, capturing monsters made them think about the demands certain people kept making to analyse, capture and dissect monsters, rather than send them back using Winston’s tech.

If Reaper belonged to such a faction, then…

“Genji.” Hana’s voice startled him. “I know I poke fun at you a lot about… Zenyatta, and that I can’t be around him much, but… you know I would never let anyone do anything to him, right?”

“I know, Hana. I’m sorry you two had to keep that shit bottled up, though. I’ve been a bit of a bad leader. I don’t know what I can do to help you two manage to be around Zenyatta, but… I hope the Shambali can give some hint that can do the job better than I can.”

Lucio flashed him a smile. “Sure did. It’s amusing because I thought they would suggest meditation, but none of them did. Actually spent time explaining we need to use things we like instead, so like… music, or–”

“–videogames,” Hana finished with a proud smile. “It’s not about concentration, or at least. Not all of it. I can’t really explain it as well as they did, but we’ll try to work with it. I promise, Genji. I don’t want to cause Zenyatta any more pain.”

“Nor would he wish you the same thing, I’m sure.”

Hana offered him a thumbs up. “Now get your butt up and let’s go get some food, sleeping beauty.”

Lucio was the first up, stretching with a loud crack. “Oh man, I’m famished.”

“Where’s Zenyatta?”

“Winston said he woke up earlier in the morning, but is still in the lab with Athena running the last tests before Moira comes back. You could head over to Master Mondatta with him and your brother before then.”

“At least I won’t have to see her much.” Genji made a face as they left the common room, but rather than head for breakfast, he made to walk the opposite way –towards the lab… only to get grabbed on both arms by Lucio and Hana.

“Oh no, you don’t. Zenyatta can wait until you’ve gotten some food.” Lucio started to tug him down the corridor and towards the kitchen, Hana cackling and doing the same, and Genji made only one attempt to dislodge his friends before he gave up and actually allowed himself to be dragged away.

Much to their surprise, though, Winston was waiting for them in the kitchen, gleefully digging into his stash of peanut butter.

“Good news, team!”

Hana rolled her eyes. “What, Moira’s leaving earlier because she realised she left her oven on?”

“Uh, yes. I mean, not because of that–”

“Wait, really? She’s– did I get that right? What do I win?”

Winston levelled her down with a glare, though not a heartfelt one. “She originally planned to stay for just one week, but ended up wanting to be here longer to be able to either catch the Cultist or, well. Study the orb and take it back with her. But with our, uh, talk… of the other day, she realised she’s overstepped and besides–” he raised his voice to talk over the sudden chorus of happy screams coming from the three sentai “she was called earlier by her operating base. Her work there is needed, and her team operates differently from us, so she needs to oversee their work. She has decided to leave in the early afternoon, rather than at the end of the week. So… well. I guess we got lucky, team!”

“Man, I can’t believe we’re finally getting rid of her!” Lucio elbowed Hana, both smiling. “I mean, she didn’t bother me too much, but things were tense either way. Oh! It means we can tell Angela to come back!”

“She’s been texting me all week,” Hana groaned, poking her phone. “Wanted to know when she could come back. I think girl needed her break but now she’s bored and wants stuff to do.”

Genji snorted, but he could understand Angela’s feelings rather well –it made him antsy when he had nothing to do. “What about Zenyatta’s mala?”

“As I said, we came to an understanding while we were examining the nanomachines together. She requested to be the first I will call the moment I have news about the Cultist,” Winston answered, opening a jar of peanut butter and carefully digging a finger into it. “She, uh, she wishes to be the first to know the moment we finally, uh, catch him, and hopes she will be invited if we decide to keep him for experiments rather than, well. Send him back.”

Genji, Lucio and Hana stared at Winston in shock, but all he did was shrug and shove the peanut butter in his mouth, making a satisfied noise as he ate it. “What? That was a pretty easy promise to make, considering we have no plans to do either thing.”

“Just so.” Hanzo’s voice coming from the entrance of the kitchen startled the four. None of them heard him –or Zenyatta, who was standing at his side– coming. “But it will put Miss O’Deorain at ease, and make it less likely for her to return here again if you take too long to… deal with the Cultist.”

Zenyatta intertwined his fingers together, the picture of carefully crafted innocence despite his creepy appearance. “I would say you have been dealing with the Cultist rather well, but I might be biased.”

Hanzo shot him an amused look, and Genji was startled to realise that they were standing close to one another, and his brother did not seem to react negatively to his aura, while Lucio, Hana and Winston had tensed up, though they tried to not show it. “You don’t say?”

Genji only had a moment to wonder about this shift, Hanzo and Zenyatta acting friendly, and then he took a second to kick himself for the sudden spike of worry –Zenyatta liking his own brother more than him, because of course, who wouldn’t like Hanzo, dignified and proud and older than Genji and he had _two_ dragons, and–

He pushed that feeling down, resolute to ignore it for the petty, stupid thing it was, and instead made his way towards Zenyatta, stopping in front of him.

“You ok?” the words came out a little softer than he’d meant them to sound, but he tried not to get embarrassed.

Genji could be dignified too. And cool. And blasé about it. Yes.

Zenyatta appeared startled, just a little, and tilted his head to the side, forehead array flickering. “Of course, Genji. I have rested, and Winston made sure I was perfectly alright before disconnecting me from Athena’s computer.” For a moment it looked like he wanted to reach out to him, shoulders hitching up, and Genji’s heart lurched in his chest, but then Zenyatta did not, his hands still linked in front of him, and Genji swallowed his disappointment down. “And it will be a relief not to have to worry about Miss Moira’s presence at the base.”

“I will not leave the base, as I am still running some tests on the nanomachines we extracted from Zenyatta’s mala,” Winston continued his peanut butter finger-dipping, pleased to have both the snack and his own base to himself once again. “Genji, Moira said she would not mind if you chose to return to Master Mondatta’s side rather than accompany her to the airport, but that means…” he turned to look at Hana and Lucio, both groaning.

Lucio poked Hana on the shoulder. “Hey, want to bite the bullet and take one for the team?”

“No way! You’re not abandoning me with Moira like that, what kind of friend–”

“One who can get you that new game you’ve been drooling on for the past month?”

Hana did hesitate then, just for a moment, before she resolutely shook her head. “You’re not going to buy me with just that! You’re coming with me so we suffer together!”

Genji exchanged a look with Winston, smiling, then turned to look at his brother. “Do you wish to come as well?”

“It would be best, yes. I am not fond of Miss O’Deorain, either.”

“I don’t think anyone in this room really is…” Genji raises both eyebrows at Winston, who shrugged. “Yeah, none of us.” He turned to Zenyatta. “You coming?”

“I am sure my brother will wish to know about what happened with the experiments from last night, yes. It will relieve him to hear at least one of my problems has been solved.” Zenyatta’s forehead array brightened in a smile. “I will wait in my room until it is time to go.”

Hana shook her head forcefully. “Please, you don’t have to go just because… I’m going to practice, and Lucio as well, and when Angela comes back, she will too! You don’t have to leave just because of your stupid aura and your wriggly tentacles thingy, they’re not really scary at all, actually…” she trailed off, eyes going wide. “Wait a moment! I remember what you remind me of now!”

She grabbed her phone and tapped something on it before twisting it around to reveal a google image search on it, and Genji craned his neck to look at it, baffled by her sudden words.

On the screen there was what looked like a mutant deviation of something yellow, wriggly and with tentacles, and it took Genji a couple seconds to realise he was actually looking at…

“A lemon?”

“This is a Buddha’s hand!” Hana looked at them proudly, sounding happy enough that they could even ignore the way her hand trembled, just a little. “See? Just like Zenyatta’s face!”

Speechless, Genji stared between Hana’s proud, expectant face and the phone screen, shocked by her gall and suddenly worried –would Zenyatta take offence, would he be hurt about–

Soft, muffled giggling stopped him short, and he turned around to look at Zenyatta, who had one hand covering his synth and mouth piece, shoulders shaking in mirth, chuckles turning into laughter, and it took him a few seconds to be able to talk through his laughing. “That is… incredibly insightful of you, Hana. I have never seen that before in my life. How curious.”

Hana puffed her chest out. “I’m going to order one online,” she casually promised, and turned to look at Genji with a face that made his blood run cold as she leaned closer, whispering so that only he could hear, “so you can eat that one at le–”

“ _Hana_!”

Genji’s cheeks burned red in embarrassment, Hana’s unexpected teasing right in front of Zenyatta making him hope the ground could spontaneously open up so it could engulf him whole, so he could find merciful death in the silent depths of the soil and escape this–

“Buddha’s hands are lacking the common bitter aftertaste that most lemon variants have,” Athena’s voice piped up, distracting everybody from the way Genji had backed away, still speechless, “it might work well in a cake.”

“Awesome, always wanted to get Angela to bake a lemon cake! Or, well, any cake!” Hana tapped away at her phone, the picture of innocence, and Genji made a promise to himself that he would have his revenge at some point, very soon.

He made the mistake to look at Zenyatta, and thanks to Hana’s helpful words, all he could think about was how it would be to kiss Zenyatta, and that really did not help him –in fact, it only made it worse, his cheeks burning so much he could feel the blush spreading down his neck.

“Genji, are you alright?” Zenyatta leaned forwards, forehead array bright and tentacles wriggling, obviously worried. “Are you running a fever?”

“N–” taking a step back from him, Genji shook his head, inwardly cursing Hana. “I just. Slept. Badly, that’s all! No harm done. Once Moira’s gone, it’ll be alright!”

Zenyatta made a small sound and leaned back, effectively putting some space between them.

Lucio made a knowing sound, but swept in to back Genji up. “We all will rest better, once she is gone. But! We’ve been standing there without eating –except for Winston,” Winston had the decency to look startled at that, fingers deep in the peanut butter jar “so I call dibs! I need some food!”

“Despite your kind offer, Hana,” Zenyatta smiled at her, “I will still have to retire, before Miss Moira comes back. Athena will warn me when you leave, so I will make my way to Mondatta’s suite after all of you are gone.”

“Okay!” Lucio offered him a thumbs up, and though he, Hana and Winston were relieved to see him leaving, they managed to hide it well enough, this time.

“I’m accompanying you back there!” Genji rushed to his side. “Lucio’s going to make us all something good to eat, so I have the time to spare.”

Lucio made a disgruntled noise. “Wait, why do I have to?”

“Because you’re good at cooking and I’m–”

“Oh, just let the guy go, you know he’s got his priorities set straight!” Hana grinned, and Genji hurried out of the kitchen, nudging Zenyatta to follow him without touching him, but not fast enough to miss her parting words, “Though he sure as hell isn’t straight now, is he?”

Zenyatta followed Genji down the corridor, the sound of his footsteps behind him pleasant to Genji, and slowly he relaxed, the tension and embarrassment leaving him.

“I’m sorry about Hana,” he finally muttered. “She’s usually well behaved, you know.”

“Oh, please. I did not mind. In fact… it made me feel…” Zenyatta hesitated, footsteps faltering in their pace before he continued to walk, and Genji turned to look at him. “It was the first time I was included in a joke between you. It felt nice. I am glad she is trying despite the aura.”

Genji swallowed, his throat tied in a knot, and simply nodded.

“Also…” Zenyatta sighed. “Forgive me, Genji. Last night was truly too strenuous for me, so I could not help you with your nightmares.”

Genji blinked. He’d not had a nightmare, mostly because he’d spent a lot of time worrying over Zenyatta, and then training with Hanzo until he could barely stand, and had few hours of precious sleep after that, but then he realised Zenyatta had mistakenly taken his words from before to imply the lack of sleep had been due to nightmares, and felt a stab of guilt.

“No, I just… I trained with my brother because I could not sleep, and I only had a few hours, after that. You don’t have to… my nightmares are not your responsibility. You’ve been helping me since then, but don’t fault yourself for them. Okay?”

Genji reached out instinctively, not stopping to think about anything, and patted Zenyatta on the arm, once, before retreating. Zenyatta did not look startled, but he moved his optical receptors to his arm, then to Genji’s hand, and his forehead array burned brightly for a moment.

“Alright. As long as you do not think I need to be escorted every time I have to go somewhere.”

That startled a laugh out of Genji, who shook his head. “Nah, I just enjoy your company and I wanted to get away from Hana before she could continue to poke fun at me.”

A fond, small chuckle. “She is rather good at that, is she? What is it that she said?”

Genji exhaled loudly. “N-nothing of importance!”

Zenyatta hummed, unconvinced, but he appeared amused by Genji’s embarrassment, rather than left out, so Genji did consider that a victory.

***

Zenyatta could not peek from the window when Moira and the sentai left the base, but he heard them leave nonetheless, the entrance they chose to use close to his room.

Their voices were muffled and distant, but still clear enough for him to hear.

He’d only seen Moira from afar once, during Mondatta’s speech, and even then he had given her barely a glance or two, curious about that strong-willed woman but more interested in his brother to care for her appearance, but he had, after that, asked Athena for a picture of her, and he could say that her stern appearance fit well with her voice and her attitude.

It made him somewhat wary to know she had analysed one of his orbs together with Winston, but he trusted the… giant gorilla, official commander of the sentai force, to know how much information could be safely shared before she got _too_ interested.

“It has been quite the pleasure to see the way your group operates, Winston.”

“Ah, thank you Moira. It was, a pleasure to have you as well!”

“I am sure.” Moira did not sound entirely in agreement with him, and by the tinge of her voice, Zenyatta could easily picture a small, sardonic smile on her face. “I am aware that I am not quite favoured by your rangers… and please, you don’t need to deny it. I might be a little… callous, but we have been able to get along regardless, and I will leave with the full knowledge that the sentai rangers have everything under control… not to mention, the information gathered and the data from the Cultist’s orb. That will be important to advance our knowledge about the monsters.”

“Yes… that is what matters.”

“Moira, where’s your assistants?”

“They are waiting for me at the airport,” Moira sounded aggravated. “I had to send Olivia earlier, or she would have simply attempted to sleep in and miss the flight. Why must all brilliant minds be so addled with stupidity?”

Zenyatta heard Hana giggle, though he was not sure whether it was in agreement with Moira’s words or due to the assistant’s peculiar, stubborn attitude.

It was probable the correct answer was the second one, but Zenyatta had no problem with giving Hana the benefit of the doubt.

“Alright. The car is waiting around the corner for you, Moira,” Genji’s voice had Zenyatta smile to himself. “Wouldn’t want to get you to the airport too late, right?”

“I suppose I will have to go. I do fear what Olivia will do if I leave her without supervision. Winston… it was a pleasure seeing you again. Mail me the moment you have more information, alright? Oh, and send my regards to Angela. I hope she will be able to feel better soon. Such a disappointing thing, that I was unable to see her.”

“Sure thing, Moira! Have a nice flight!”

He heard Lucio, Hana and Moira descend through the secret entrance and down to the street, where he was unable to hear them leave. Genji and Hanzo waited only a minute longer before they also bid their farewells to Winston, departing to Mondatta’s hotel.

After another full minute of quiet, Zenyatta heard Winston exhale a long breath.

“Zenyatta, if you need to see me before you leave, I will be in my office. I need to call Ana to let her know Moira’s gone, and… I might have to speak with her for a while.” His voice startled Zenyatta, who straightened his back. “There are a few things about your orbs that she needs to know.”

Winston would not hear him answer, so he remained quiet, listening as Winston entered the base, the door sealing itself behind his back.

There was a flicker of light coming from one of the cameras of the room, and Zenyatta’s attention moved to look at it. “Athena?”

“Yes, Zenyatta?” she sounded almost distracted.

“Is it safe for me to leave yet?”

A short pause. “It is safe –Moira’s car just left, but…” another spark of electricity. “I need to update the base’s protections now that Moira and her assistants are gone.”

Zenyatta exhaled an artificial sigh, grateful that Moira was truly gone even if he’d have to wait a little longer.

Yet, it was good enough –now he could focus on spending what little time he had left with Mondatta, and then talk freely with Winston about what to do regarding Reaper and Sombra.

A few minutes ticked by, and bored with having to stay in the room, Zenyatta wondered if he would have enough time to read a few chapters of his book before he could leave. “How long will it be until the protections are updated, Athena?”

There was no answer.

“… Athena? Are you busy?”

“… forgive me, Zenyatta, I went offline for a second to complete the reset of the protections around the base.” She sounded a little stressed, and Zenyatta hummed in understanding. She was the sole protection the sentai rangers base had, so it fell on her to make sure they were safe. “The entrance near you needs to be updated still, but I have worked through two other entrances, so you can use one of those. If you head to the back, I will let you out from the underground entrance.”

“Oh, the one leading to the hotel parking lot?”

“Yep! Sorry for the mishap, but I had to load a lot of upgrades on the security system with Moira and the extra settings Winston added so she would not be able to find your files, so now I have a lot to undo and add. Winston coded some new strings so that if Moira attempts to enter my systems from her lab, she will be denied.”

“I heard Winston was thinking about asking for clearance to her name. He seems to trust her, despite their different… ideologies.”

“It is true, but… I do not think it would be a great idea. She is brilliant, but if her demands are to be met, she might ask for you to submit to more tests, and… well, Genji would not appreciate.” A beat. “Nor would you, I am sure.”

“That is true.” And if Zenyatta’s core fluttered just a bit at the reminder of Genji’s care for him, Zenyatta did not linger on the thought.

Athena opened the path down the tunnel, and Zenyatta exited the base. The orbs he’d left around the city reported the usual, calm surroundings, and no one seemed to be around the parking area either, but despite that, he still clouded himself using the nanomachines, flickering out of sight.

“Thank you Athena. Please make sure Genji knows I have safely left the base.”

“Will do!”

His footsteps echoed emptily in the underground passage as he walked all the way from the base towards the parking lot, his thoughts focused on his next meeting with Mondatta.

“ _Hey there~_ ”

Zenyatta’s head snapped to the side, Sombra’s voice so close to his ear he was startled, taking a step back in shock.

He had not even heard her coming, and there was no one anywhere on sight, which meant… he could still not _see_ her–

“Hacking initiated~”

Red alert warnings flashed past his vision, a sudden image of a pink skull superimposing itself over his optical receptors.

He could feel a foreign, invasive signal burn its way through his body like a punch, and Zenyatta let out a soft, shocked gasp as his body jolted in pain, his nanomachines sluggish, and his body became visible again, circuits throbbing.

Zenyatta had not ordered it to, he’d–

The signal travelled through his body, numbing everything and leaving behind only pain, and Zenyatta stumbled again, suddenly dizzy, the world tilting sideways until his shoulder hit the wall at his side.

“Wh–”

“Too bad we couldn’t play a little bit longer. I was having fun around you and your friends! But… you know what they say. First comes duty, then comes the fun.”

A hand pressed down at the base of his neck, fingers tapping down the curve of his cables, and something was pressed deep into a slot until it clicked, and Zenyatta fought against the sudden, unexpected fog that clouded his thought processes.

He felt…

The fog spread further, muddling his thoughts, and Zenyatta’s optical receptors blurred out of focus, servos going slack.

He could feel the hack spread through his circuits like poison, the virus attacking his mainframe, finding no resistance nor firewall, processes culled before they could even attempt to resist.

Zenyatta slipped and tumbled, going down on his knees and hands like a dead weight.

Sombra was talking again, chatting happily somewhere near him, her gloved hand still at the base of his skull, but Zenyatta could not focus on her words enough to understand what she was saying.

The sounds were distorted, like they were coming to him through layers of water, and he tried to move one arm, to…

He fell on the ground face first, the world tilting around him, darkness eating away the edges of his vision.

“N…o…” his synth crackled and failed him, silencing his pleas before he could even think about voicing them.

Desperately, he tried to cling to consciousness, but the pull was too strong.

Nothing seemed to respond to him, not even his own thoughts, reduced to slow, halted binary, words failing the more of his processes shut down.

A flash of pink, the skull burning its way into his circuits, and then Sombra’s voice rang clear inside his mind, the command given directly to his processes–

“Take a nap now, Cultist. We’ve got a long road trip to take.”

With a shudder, Zenyatta’s processes obeyed the order and shut down, plunging his mind into unconsciousness.

 


	25. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bless all of you for being patient on such cliffhanger, hehe! i'm back! :D

**Chapter 24**

Mondatta stared quietly out of the window, allowing his thoughts to drift.

There was a knot of worry lodged somewhere deep in his core, something that kept him restless as he watched Moira leave to return to the sentai base, and despite a meditation session with Vrishika and Yutta, Mondatta could still not find a way to soothe it.

The woman had been dangerous, shrewd and sharp, and her presence had made Zenyatta’s secret important to keep hidden, so knowing she would leave should have been a relief, and yet, that relief was short lived, eclipsed by this worry.

Outwardly, he knew, he appeared calm and relaxed, but he knew Vrishika and Yutta had caught his mood because their auras were tinged with a reflection of it as they moved listlessly around the room of the suite, keeping quiet out of respect for him.

It would be so easy to dismiss this worry as one of the many pressing things Mondatta had to face until then, from Zenyatta’s situation to the appearance of more who wished him harm, and yet, it refused to go away.

Meditating on it, on its roots, did not help either.

With nothing else to do before the sentai arrived again, Mondatta entertained himself by staring down at the city outside of the suite. It looked tranquil, calm, and so different from the view of the Shambali monastery. Full of people, of omnics, all living together. Since his arrival, he had not seen a single monster at all, but he had seen many who needed guidance instead.

“I have been considering something,” he finally spoke up, and Yutta, who was closer to him, jolted and turned to look at him, caught in the middle of sorting through a few magazines.

“What is it, Master?”

“I wish to prolong my stay here.”

This attracted both Yutta and Vrishika’s attention, forehead arrays blinking in synch to show their surprise. “What?”

“There is much that I have been remiss to do, including being by my brother’s side.” Mondatta turned around, voice grave. “The monastery will be able to continue without me for a little while longer.”

Vrishika exhaled loudly an artificial breath. “I knew this would happen.”

“I had expected to hear you say that since the moment we left Nepal, Master. Brother Zenyatta always seemed to be the one to push you out of your comfort zones, after all.” Yutta did not sound apologetic at all.

Mondatta made a soft, undignified snort.

“I simply wish to be by my brother’s side.”

“Yet, this might pose a problem. Staying means you will have the media’s attention following you all along, and you will be hard pressed to continue giving speeches to justify your stay here,” Vrishika pointed out, sounding upset. Shambali were hardly allowed to exist for the sake of it, especially one as well-known as Mondatta. “How would your presence here serve to help Zenyatta if you will not be able to see him?”

“I do not intend for the public eye to be made aware of what I wish to do.”

Vrishika and Yutta exchanged a puzzled glance before Yutta’s forehead array brightened in understanding. “You… want to stage your return to the Shambali Monastery, and instead stay here?”

“Precisely.”

“That–” Vrishika interrupted herself, and reconsidered, humming for a few seconds. “–could actually work, yes. People have been hounding you for more interviews that we had to turn down ever since your arrival here, so leaving quietly to attract less attention would cover up your stay here, though I do not think the sentai would appreciate having to cater to you as well, and without their aid… how could you continue to see Zenyatta?”

Mondatta hummed quietly. “About that… I think I will have to make a few calls.”

Vrishika’s forehead array burned brightly. “ _Oh_. You’re going to call him, are you?”

Refusing to give her reason to be smug, Mondatta simply hummed. “It is for the best. I have the capabilities to protect myself if I do not have to uphold my status as a Shambali leader, but I would not have the connections needed to stay. He does.”

“Hmmm–mmmm.” Vrishika smiled at him, voice impish. “And this gives you an opportunity to call him and then– oh! You can introduce Zenyatta to him! I bet they would get along well!”

Mondatta found himself smiling, his forehead array flickering briefly as he considered the matter. “I would hope so.”

They were spared further conversation when a figure jumped in front of the window. Mondatta slid the balcony door open and Green sentai slid inside, offering the three omnics a small greeting.

“Yo!”

“I take it your colleague has finally left for the airport?”

“Yes, Master Mondatta. My– uh, a hero from another city has recently joined us for a debrief, and has been informed of the situation. He asked to come through the hotel security after a perimeter check, so he will join us soon.” Green sentai shifted in place. “As for Zenyatta, he will also arrive soon. Athena and Winston are still at the base, while the other two sentai rangers went with Moira to see her off.”

“I am grateful for your assistance, Green sentai.” Mondatta motioned for him to sit, and Green sentai did so, flopping down on one of the armchairs with a small sigh. “Is everything alright?”

“What? Oh, no, I mean, yes. I’m just…” Green sentai made a small wave with one hand, voice sounding sheepish. “Please do not mind me, Master Mondatta. Oh! Winston mentioned you would be interested in the results of the examination on Zenyatta’s nanomachines, so if you wish to have a copy of the data extracted, he’s willing to have one sent to you.”

“Thank you. I am no scientist, but I would be grateful to look over a copy of it.” A beat, then Mondatta went to sit in front of Green sentai. “I know I might be annoying, but I would like to know a little more, if you could.”

“I was there with him during the–” a small falter, Green sentai’s hands rubbing against his knees the only hint of his agitation “–tests. I’m not a scientist either, but I can tell you that he’s alright. The nanites that were giving him trouble are under control now, so that’s… a start. Winston could use more refined words, but…”

“No, that is alright. Despite being an omnic, I do not specialize in this sort of work. Mine is more spiritual, so simpler explanations are far more fitting for me.”

Green sentai snorted, offering Mondatta a small shrug. “I do get that. Zenyatta will explain better when he comes here, but I just want to…”

“Offer some reassurance, because Zenyatta would say, of course, that everything is alright.”

“… yeah.”

Mondatta waited. He could tell, by Green sentai’s countenance and the way he braced himself, a shade of discord flickering around his soul, that there was something else he wished to say.

“It was… painful. For him. Tonight was…” Green sentai’s voice was tense, and he swallowed a couple times, apparently at loss on how to proceed. “The nanomachines needed to be irradiated and it looked like it hurt, and I think… I think he wanted you to be there for him, but there was no one else, just… just us. He’s alright now, and it was something needed, but I did not…”

Mondatta exhaled an artificial breath. “You feel guilty, for you could not protect him from that pain. Yet, your presence meant he was not alone. I think you forget too easily how much something so small could mean the world to someone.”

Green sentai’s shoulders slumped in defeat, but he nodded. “I was hurt once, during a fight. I went ahead on my own, because I wanted to protect my friends, but I overestimated my enemy and myself, and I got hurt… rather badly. It took me months to be able to return to active duty, and I was… angry. At myself, but also at my team because they never left me alone.” Hands clenched into fists, Green sentai looked away and towards the balcony. The room was quiet, Mondatta, Vrishika and Yutta listening in silence. “I think I would have felt worse if they had given me space, but at the time I was unable to appreciate it for what it was. Now I do understand, but… when you’re not the one hurting, it’s… difficult, to feel like simply being present is enough.”

Mondatta smiled, shutting down his optical receptors for a second.

Humans, he thought, and he allowed himself to be warmed by the fondness he felt in that moment, a reminder that not all humans were only meant to harm.

Optical receptors back online, Mondatta stood up, and under Green sentai’s vigilant eyes, he grabbed from his kasaya the one photo he had been unable to convince Zenyatta to take, looking down at it for a second, then he tilted his face plate up and met Green sentai’s gaze.

“I wish for you to have this.”

He pushed the photo across the small coffee table between them, and observed as Green sentai, startled, looked down at it.

“Wh-what? Why?”

“I have… attempted to give this picture to Zenyatta, yesterday. He refused it. He accepted the rest, but he did not wish to see himself as he was.” He exhaled slowly. “Despite his hopes, he fears that clinging to the past will make it hard for him, should all else fail and he has to learn to live with the appearance he has now.”

Green sentai, startled, looked away from the photo. “I promised I would do all I could to help him, and I understand that this is… a lot to take in, but… you… want _me_ to give it to him? If he did not want it from you, why would he accept it from _me_?”

“It is true that my bond with Zenyatta is stronger, but… I have known him for a long time, Green sentai. All my memories of Zenyatta are of him wearing this appearance, not the one he has now. I have no memories made with him now, and I fear this might be a barrier between us, because I have a feeling he believes himself to be an omnic no more.” He tapped the edge of the photo, and Green sentai looked down at it, silent and sober. “If I push for him to not reject his past, I fear to drive him to do just that. I do not wish for him to hurt anymore.”

Green sentai remained silent for a few more seconds, thinking it over, then he straightened his back. “But I have never met _this_ Zenyatta. All I know of Zenyatta is the one in front of me now. The one I enjoy having around. You think he might accept this photo from me because I have no connections to his past as you do.”

“Yes.”

“Master Mondatta… I will gladly try to do this, but I don’t think Zenyatta would ever believe there is a barrier between you. All he wanted, even before you came here, was to see you. He told me…” and there was a sad tone to the sentai’s voice now, almost bitter, “he told me that all he wishes is to go back to the monastery. He is tired.”

Mondatta sighed, and moved his hand on top of Green sentai’s, a contact that lasted only a second before he moved away. “He has gone through a lot. I wish for him to come back, but only on his own terms. Yet, I will keep on hoping for a solution, so that burden can be lifted from him.”

“As do I, Master Mondatta.”

Green sentai grabbed the photo from the table, holding it up in his hands to look at it and then he slid it in a secret pocket inside his suit, right on his chest, and bowed his head to Mondatta.

As if on cue, there was a soft knock coming from the suite front door.

“Please allow me!” Standing up, Green sentai made his way to the door.

The man at the door was not dressed as a sentai, though Mondatta had not expected it, and was instead donning a rather weird attire that seemed rather hi-tech, with metallic shoulder pads, a form-fitting metal plating and a mask covering the person’s lower face, ending at the edge of his eyes. The shades of his costume were metallic and blue, accentuating the twin blue dragons painted on the length of the man’s left arm.

“It is a honour to meet you, Master Mondatta.” The man’s voice was soft as he offered him a bow, and Mondatta could tell that he and Green sentai hailed from the same birthplace, at least by their attitude. “I am called the Dragon Archer.”

Mondatta offered a nod back, the familiarity of the name not lost to him. “I have heard of your fame. You have a hero team in the city of Hanamura, am I right?”

“Yes. That is my birthplace and it is under my protection. I am proud to hear you have heard of our efforts.”

Mondatta hummed, pleased that the sentai had such a widespread level of connections. “Green sentai vouched for your presence, so I expect you know about my brother?”

“Yes. I met him earlier this morning before we left the base.” Dragon Archer had a more imposing figure than Green sentai, but he also held himself differently, and Mondatta did not need to read his aura to feel his confidence shining through just by his stance. “As Green sentai does, I also have a particular resistance to monster auras.”

“That pleases me to know. If you will stay, perhaps you could lend a hand in making sure my brother is not as lonely, then. Although, I am sure Green sentai does enough to make him feel appreciated.”

Green sentai, startled by the sudden inclusion in the conversation, looked between Mondatta and the Dragon Archer and cleared his throat. His hand shifted to the pocket he’d placed the photo of Zenyatta in. “It is no imposition of mine to spend time with Zenyatta. I… enjoy his presence.”

Mondatta hummed deep in his synth, and watched as Dragon Archer’s eyebrows raised just a little bit at Green sentai’s words.

Vrishika and Yutta approached Dragon Archer easily, interested in his work, and Mondatta watched with some amusement as they managed to rope the otherwise reserved man into a quiet conversation, enough that he even accepted to summon his weapon.

Mondatta did not have the same heightened sensibility that his brother had, but his connection to the Iris was nonetheless strong, and the moment the weapon appeared in Dragon Archer’s hand –a sturdy bow with two dragons coming together from the ending limbs to the grip, heads forming both the arrow rest and the bow sight– he could feel the spirits bestowed upon the hero, though their touch was brief and disappeared back inside him as quickly as they had come.

Two dragons… and it made Mondatta wonder about the man’s actual connection with Green sentai.

He knew not to inquire, though, as he did not mean to impose on either hero’s secret identities, and instead turned to look at Green sentai, finding him observing the way Dragon Archer was interacting with Yutta and Vrishika, his aura tinged with fondness.

Yes, the connection between them spoke of something deeper than simple companionship, so Mondatta had to wonder to himself if it was something closer, like a familial bond perhaps.

As he was considering the matter –he was not going to ask but that did not mean he could not wonder about it, as his curiosity was not easily sated– he saw Green sentai shift and tap the edge of his visor before he turned to look at Mondatta.

“Forgive me for a moment, I need to. Uh. I’ll be right back.” Green sentai pointed to his ear. “Have to take a business call.”

***

Genji closed the balcony door, eyes following the skyline.

“Angela?”

“Sorry Genji, I did not mean to disturb you while you’re on duty, but…”

“Did something happen? Are you and Fareeha alright?” Glancing back into the suite, Genji noticed Hanzo and Mondatta were talking, and he smiled absently under his mask, though he was more focused on Angela than them.

“Ah… no, we are alright. I planned on calling Winston to ask if I could return to active duty, actually.” Angela seemed to hesitate. “I do feel… better. I would like to come back.”

“Is this why you called? If you want me to support your request to Winston, I definitely will!”

“Well… no, I wanted to ask… Genji, you remember Zenyatta left one of his orbs with me, right?”

Genji’s smile turned a little soft. “Yeah. Has it helped you any?”

“Yes, it has. But… Genji, the orb stopped… it stopped working all of sudden. I do not know if it sensed my decision to come back, if it’s how it works, or if… I don’t know, I got… worried.”

Genji frowned. “It has? I… oh, I guess since Zenyatta went offline last night it might have severed the connection with his orbs…?”

Zenyatta had been tired out by the irradiation, and it made sense for him to lose control of one of his orbs, especially one far from him.

“That… that didn’t happen last night, though?” Angela took a deep breath. “Genji. It happened just what… around half an hour ago? I just… I wanted to wait and see if it started working again but I thought calling you would ease my worries better. Is… is Zenyatta alright?”

Genji swallowed, his mouth dry, and blinked owlishly at the railing of the balcony for a few seconds, speechless.

With Moira gone, Zenyatta should have been on his way to the hotel already, and if he rushed, he should have arrived already.

He should have been there already.

Alarms went off in Genji’s mind so suddenly he felt short on breath, throat constricted by a wave of panic, and he stumbled a little, his body moving on autopilot as he started to pace on the balcony, exhaling and inhaling deeply.

“Z–” he croaked, and had to clear his throat twice to be able to speak. “Zenyatta is coming to the hotel where Master Mondatta is staying. He was at the base when I left to come here. He… He should be on his way.”

Half an hour.

He’d left the base around that time, and Zenyatta was alright. Nothing had happened.

There was a long, tense silence on the other end of the communication. “Genji… are you sure?”

Dizzy, he stopped pacing to grab the railing in one hand, taking a few, deep breaths to try and calm himself down. His fingers prickles, his chest felt heavy, anxiety bubbling up in his chest, but he pushed everything down, refusing to let himself panic without proof.

Zenyatta _was alright._

The balcony was quiet, no other sound around him, and Genji felt the silence press down on his skin, overwhelming.

Half an hour.

Zenyatta…

“Angela, hang on for a second–” Genji fumbled with the communication set, switching channels. “Athena? Can you hear me?”

“Yes, Genji?”

“Is Zenyatta there?”

“No, he is on his way to the hotel now.”

Genji exhaled slowly.

Everything was alright. Zenyatta was coming. Nothing had happened. There was absolutely no reason to panic just because Angela…

“Are you _sure_?” he found himself asking, fingers tight around the railing.

“Yes, Genji,” there was an edge of exasperation in her voice, but an amused one. “Why did you ask?”

“Angela called me–”

“I am still here, I can hear your conversation, Genji.”

“–and Zenyatta’s orb has stopped working. Athena, is there a way we can… track Zenyatta down? Just to make sure…?”

“Well… we were not yet able to put a tracker on him like we have on your suit comms and your phones so–”

“ _Can you_?”

“No, I can’t–”

Genji swallowed hard.

There was nothing to be worried about. Zenyatta would arrive soon. Angela was worried for nothing…

And yet.

“Sentai power attack, Dragon Spirit unleashed!”

He called forth his Dragon and felt it respond from the depths of his mind, surging up to answer his call. His helmet changed shapes, forming the familiar dragon head he had already used once to track Zenyatta down.

Maybe Athena could not find him, but _Genji_ could.

“Green sentai!”

The balcony door opened, and both Hanzo and Mondatta rushed outside. It was clear he had startled them both, and if Mondatta was as sharp in his sensibility as Zenyatta was, then he had probably felt the dragon stir from within him as well.

“I have to go,” he said. He had not planned to divulge his worries, because getting Mondatta anxious about his brother if nothing was wrong would only stress him needlessly, but as he looked into that impassive face plate, he found himself reconsidering. “It’s nothing, but… I worry for Zenyatta’s safety. Something might be wrong.”

Mondatta’s forehead array faltered, and Hanzo frowned. “Do you wish me to come with you?”

“No, please. Stay with Master Mondatta. But I… I need to go.”

At the edge of his consciousness, he felt his dragon’s presence brush against his own, its powers intensifying, expanding in the air around them, and both Hanzo and Mondatta stiffened as they felt an echo of it go through them.

The dragon wanted to help, and Genji briefly directed to it his grateful thoughts.

He jumped off the edge of the balcony and quickly bounced from building to building, scanning his surroundings.

Zenyatta should have arrived to the hotel already, or if he truly was not this fast, he should still be on the way there, but… there was no flashing dot on his visor, no signal coming from Zenyatta.

“Dragon, please… why can’t I find him?”

He received no answer, and pushed himself to run faster, dashing in the air, running down a building’s wall, eyes darting everywhere, seeking the familiar figure of Zenyatta, or even a dot to alert him of where he was.

Still nothing.

There was… nothing.

“Zenyatta, please… where are you?”

The panic surged up again, and this time Genji could not keep it down. His visor should be flashing, there should have been a blinking dot to lead him to Zenyatta, like before, but there was nothing, and–

“Genji–” Angela’s voice broke through his panic, reminding him she was still connected. “I’m coming back to the base. Are the others still at the airport?”

He knew she could hear his emotions clearly as he spoke, but he didn’t care, gritting his teeth to breathe through them. “It should… it should take them a bit longer to drop Moira off and come back. Can you call them to check? I need…”

“Yes. Genji please, if you find him…”

“I’ll call back, Angela.”

The call dropped on that cue, neither willing to linger too long, Genji’s thoughts scattered and filled with sudden fear and unable to focus on anything else.

There was still no blinking dot.

Running at full speed and with his dragon’s powers, Genji found his way back to the base in no time, tracing back the path he’d taken in reverse to get to Mondatta’s hotel, eyes straining to catch a glimpse of a familiar figure, only to find none.

He jumped on top of the wall and in front of one of the ledges that led to the secret entrance to the base, the same he’d used earlier to leave, and tapped on the smooth surface of the building.

“Athena, I’m outside. I need to check the camera footage.”

A small panel slid open in front of him to reveal a flat screen and a keyboard, and Genji watched the list of options for a moment before he submitted the code for the security cameras, tapping on the touchscreen to view the ones he needed. The footage showed Winston returning inside the base after seeing the sentai and Moira off, nothing to see there.

He waited, skipping ahead a few minutes, but Zenyatta did not leave from any of the front entrances, nor did any of them open.

“Athena? Which exit did Zenyatta use to leave the base?”

“He left using the one leading to the nearby hotel, Emergency Exist GD-45.”

“Why?”

“I have been updating the security after Moira left.”

“Where’s Winston?”

“He has been in his office in a call with Ana and Jack for the past fifteen minutes.”

So, Winston had yet to be informed, and probably did not know anything.

He quickly changed the camera codes to the one leading to the hotel’s parking lot, and his heart clenched in his chest when he finally saw Zenyatta walk down the tunnel, his orbs and core glowing in the dim lights.

“There you are…” he murmured. “So what happened…?”

He flicked through the four camera on the tunnel, watching carefully. Everything seemed alright…

Something flickered on the edge of the camera’s vision, and Genji felt his heart jump in his throat. What was–

The camera’s footage faltered, and a symbol flashed through the screen, and then everything went black.

Fuck.

_Fuck._

“Athena, where’s the footage? What happened?! Where’s Zenyatta?!”

Frantic now, he switched cameras again, only for the same thing to happen from another angle, and then on a third camera, the last one before the exit into the parking lot.

A flash of something, then the cameras fading to black, and the same symbol on the screen, a pink skull.

Someone had hacked the security cameras.

Without bothering to watch anymore, Genji jumped down the side of the wall and dashed across the street and towards the hotel’s parking lot. From the main entrance of the base it was a five-minutes’ walk, but he got there in two, heart racing in his chest.

The underground parking lot was empty, save for a few cars, and Genji ran through it, refusing to believe anything unless he could find…

“Zenyatta!”

Maybe he was still here, maybe he’d not left, maybe he could still–

“Zenyatta! Please, answer me!”

His visor was still quiet, no pinging dot.

“No, no, no…” he continued to mutter under his breath, frantically looking everywhere.

One of their cameras was hidden in the wall above the secret door leading down to the tunnel, and he looked up at it, though he could not say if it was working or not.

Zenyatta was not here.

Spinning wildly to look everywhere, Genji could not calm himself down.

If Zenyatta was… if he’d been…

Genji backed away until he hit the wall with his shoulders, heaving hard to force air into his lungs. He felt hot, his skin prickling, and no matter how much he tried to calm down, he could not –the thought of Zenyatta being gone the only thing he could focus on.

“Genji, the footage has been corrupted by something external, I am not sure I would be able to recover it but something is wrong with… Genji?” Athena’s voice filtered through his thoughts, but he did not hear her. “Genji?”

Something peeked from under a nearby car, barely visible in the lowered lights of the parking lot and partially hidden by a wheel, and Genji stared at it uncomprehendingly, ears buzzing.

One of Zenyatta’s mala, eye open and unmoving, and under it, what looked like a business card, the same skull symbol printed on its surface.

“No…”

***

Something heavy was wrapped around his arms and legs, keeping him pinned down.

Zenyatta fought against whatever it was, fought against the weird haziness that wrapped itself around his mind, slowing his processes down.

His body did not answer to him, and for a long, weightless moment, Zenyatta felt fear build inside him, the idea that he was trapped in his own body, caged and unmoving, and he rebelled against it.

The fear jolted his processors, a cascade of emergency protocols flaring up to life, and Zenyatta clung to them as they ran diagnostics over his body. It was hard to focus, his mind slipping back into unconsciousness, but he fought against it, pinging each sensor in his frame until finally he got some answers.

There was a virus infecting his mainframe, keeping him from being able to move, and kept most of his processes halted or dulled down before he could run them through his system, and it was the same virus that was coaxing him back into his dormant state.

Zenyatta refused.

[Activate Emergency Protocols.]

At first, there was no response. His body was sluggish and heavy, he could not even move a finger, let alone start fighting the virus, and as he tried to ping his receptors into working, only to find every path blocked, Zenyatta found his consciousness slipping once, then again, threatening to offline again.

He did not know how, but he managed to stay awake and continue his strenuous work.

Slowly, so slowly, something finally answered.

His auricular and optical receptors buzzed online, offering him the sight of a dark ceiling above him. He was in a small, constricted space, four walls so close to him he felt almost claustrophobic since he could not move, and with his reduced visibility he could not understand where he was.

There was a vague sense of movement, a vibration he could not feel but perceive regardless, which told him that he was moving –probably a truck, or a van, going who knew where.

“Impressive. So you are awake.”

Zenyatta could not move, not even to jump at the unexpected voice, but the sound gave him something to focus on that was outside of his own mind, and though the haze was still strong, he forced himself to resist it.

The voice was… familiar. Intensely so.

“Guess you’re really more advanced than Sombra realised, if you could bypass even her hacking this quickly. Heh, just wait till she finds out, that’ll teach her.”

It took Zenyatta a couple of seconds to finally recognise the voice, as it was… different now, without a mask to muffle it. It sounded less otherworldly and more… human.

Reaper.

He tried to speak, but his synth was still offline, and all he managed was a burst of static that clipped off into silence, followed by Reaper’s laugh.

“Good attempt, but not good enough. Give it up, Cultist. You’ve got caught. It’s too late for you.”

Zenyatta tried to move again, but his body remained as unresponsive as before, his nanomachines subdued and quiet, and for a moment his mind wavered, almost slipping back into sleep, but he was startled by a face appearing above him.

Without his mask, Reaper was…

Human. Human, but different –there was a normal face there, a dark skinned man with a short beard, but his eyes…

“Interested?” Reaper grinned down at him, but the smile was not one of amusement –it was a grimace, and it reminded Zenyatta of the way he’d seen animals react when they were facing danger. His teeth were also not normal, longer and sharper, much like fangs. “You’d better get used to that. You’ll see a lot of me, much to our mutual displeasure, I bet.”

His eyes were completely black. There was no white, no distinction between sclera and pupil. They were inhuman, different, and Zenyatta wondered, distantly, if this was how Reaper had been changed and twisted by the nanomachines within him.

Reaper moved out of sight and again, the only thing Zenyatta had left to look at was the ceiling of the van.

“Bet you’re curious about where we’re going, huh?” Reaper seemed to enjoy talking, even if Zenyatta could hardly concentrate on his words, his consciousness swimming in and out of focus, but it helped him stay alive as his processes attempted to fight the hacking. “A good, nice, cozy lab where you’ll get to be an integral part of Talon’s experiments. Lucky, huh?”

Zenyatta’s synth crackled again.

There was no answer he could physically offer to Reaper, but even in this state, stuck and trapped and unable to move, his sensitivity was still there, and it was more than he could manage when he could barely cling to consciousness as it was.

The discord around Reaper was just as thick, a cloud of emotions and negative feelings that clouded Zenyatta’s mind, draining his battery further until the edges of his vision went dark.

There was no happiness within Reaper, no smugness, nothing but the same dreadful pain, agony flashing inside him, and when he mentioned Talon’s experiments –and what was Talon? Zenyatta did not know– his aura darkened further, a promise of unpleasant, painful things hanging in the air above them. It felt like poison, and with his situation already so dire, Zenyatta found himself at the mercy of the same kind of negative onslaught.

He had been captured.

Despite all his work, despite everything he had tried to do until then, despite his belief that things were getting better now that he was not alone anymore… he’d been wrong.

Now he was going to just disappear, and no one would know, and Mondatta, and Genji…

Zenyatta felt the ache in his core intensify, heightened by the panic and the fear he felt and by the negative Discord coming from Reaper, still sitting so close to him yet out of sight. He felt the Discord swell within him like a tide, opening inside him its gaping maws to eat him whole, and he could not stop it.

He was alone again, captured and he had no way out –he couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything, and everything he’d done until now was for nothing, and…

He’d left Genji behind, sweet and kind Genji who’d already wasted so much of his time to be around him, to help him, who had devoted himself to help Zenyatta and now would find him gone and feel guilty for not been there, and…

Mondatta. His brother had barely started to clear from his own Discord, from the pain of having Zenyatta far from him, they had just met again after so long and now he would be left behind again, and this time he would not know where Zenyatta was, there would be no one to tell him, he would disappear and Mondatta would–

“ _Stop_ –”

Reaper’s voice filtered through Zenyatta’s muddy thoughts like he was talking through a layer of water, but he paid him little to no mind, far too lost in the waves of Discord that were pouring from him.

It was painful.

The realisation that he was alone, that no one would find him, that he would be taken somewhere, used and forgotten–

The Discord inside him grew and expanded, wanting out and finding no barriers it did exactly that, leaking from his core, swelling around his frame in countless tendrils of darkness, thick and heavy in the air around him.

It hurt.

Agonizing pain, despair and frustration and helplessness, all bottled up until then, now amplified, and Zenyatta had no chance to rein control of it.

“ _Stop_ , Cultist!” Reaper’s choked voice sounded weaker, and he heard, vaguely, the sound of him stumbling away from him, away from the Discord, yet the space was too narrow to escape, too small.

Constricting. Tight. Smaller, narrower, tiny –Zenyatta’s Discord exploded from his body to fill the entire room, turning the air into stagnating purple mist.

Zenyatta watched it cover the ceiling, watched as the world turned hazier and the Discord swallowed him whole, and he could not stop it, could not stop himself, eaten by the darkest thoughts he could not control.

“Fuck–” Reaper stumbled again, but the sound was even further away, so distant it was negligible.

Zenyatta’s consciousness floated deeper into the darkness, its cold tendrils wrapping around him, not soothing but numb, and numb was better than feeling helpless, than feeling afraid and scared.

He’d lost so much time, he’d wasted Genji’s time and Mondatta’s and then what did it even _matter_ –

“Sombra, answer the fucking phone–”

Zenyatta felt his nanomachines burn as they started to respond, sensitivity flaring up sensor after sensor, his fingers twitching. Through the cold of his Discord, he felt his arms again, sensation returning inch by inch like his body was finally emerging from stasis, yet there was no end to the cold, and each fraction of control he found back was another inch of him plunged deeper into the cold of Discord.

Nowhere to run from the Discord.

He couldn’t focus anymore, anguish growing inside him, auricular receptors failing, but the humming of his processors continued on, and he couldn’t even tell if his optics were still working or not, the purple glow existing both around him and within his mind, throbbing like a heart, like his core, and cold and colder still–

A flare of pain stopped him abruptly, and a familiar image flashed past his vision, for a moment disrupting his slipping concentration.

Sombra’s symbol superimposed itself over the thick mist of Discord, pink light expanding from it in quick flickering bursts, following invisible neural pathways through his system.

Zenyatta’s consciousness fought the foreign presence inside his mind but it swept through him quickly, stealing the little control he’d managed to gain back.

One by one, it cut through his mind and severed and shocked him, pain filtering past the Discord.

 _‘No,’_ he found himself thinking, even as his body turned unfeeling again, as heavy as it had been before.

He fought against the hacking, but it was a lost battle. Already tired and depleted from the Discord and his own earlier struggles, Zenyatta’s body failed to answer him, and with it, Zenyatta’s Discord faltered and dimmed, finding nothing to survive on.

Wiped out and dizzy, Zenyatta found himself straining to stay awake, auricular receptors buzzing on and off, optical receptors already failing and shutting down.

Somewhere in the small, enclosed space that was his personal, private hell, he could still hear the raspy, heavy breathing of Reaper, just as rattled by Zenyatta’s Discord as he was.

“Fuck,” he heard Reaper mutter, then again with more sentiment, “ _fuck_.”

Zenyatta allowed himself a moment to feel a small amount of satisfaction, albeit short lived, on having rattled Reaper’s attitude, though he couldn’t hold onto it regardless.

Despite the fatigue, Zenyatta did not allow himself to fall back into unconsciousness, even as what was left of his processors slumped back into inactivity, optical receptors shutting down.

In the quiet, oppressive silence, Zenyatta tried to collect himself back together, a knot of anxiety still present in the back of his mind, and listened to Reaper’s harsh breathing, unable to focus or think anymore.

For the rest of the drive, Reaper remained deathly silent.

 


	26. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you will like this chapter :) there will be a little while before they can help zen hahaaa, poor boo :(

**Chapter 25**

The room was spacious, but the amount of machines inside it, filling up every inch of space, floor cluttered with spare parts and half-built projects, made it look almost small.

There were books and papers scattered in tall piles here and there, some of them dirty with grease and with ruffled pages, old magazines months old and forgotten, and there were wrenches and other tools abandoned everywhere, though none of them were rusty, all of them well used and in good state.

A cat was curled up in a ball on top of one of the metal tables, purring softly next to a young woman. She was wearing a dark tank top, cheeks smudged with grease and sweat, muscles bulging as she tightened the screws on what appeared to be a mechanic arm in front of her.

She appeared completely immersed in her work, but every now and then she would glance up at the cat and smile, nose wrinkling slightly as she selected a different screwdriver before resuming her work.

A radio somewhere in the room was playing a soft, gentle ballad, something from a few decades in the past, melancholic and sweet, and she started to hum along, fingers tapping the edge of the arm in tune with the melody, only to be interrupted by the loud ringing of a phone from the other end of the room.

She made to stand up, placing the screwdriver down on the table and the cat made a soft, disgruntled noise, but heavy, slow footsteps stopped her.

“Ah, don’t get up, I’ll get it!”

A tall, burly man, clearly well past his fifties, moved quickly through the room. Despite his size and obvious age he moved with a spring to his step, avoiding the cluttered mess until he reached the phone. “Hello!” his boisterous voice carried over to where the woman was working, and she smiled to herself as she paused her humming, practiced movements of her wrist finishing up the job before she picked up a rag to clean the arm and polish it. “Ah! Master Mondatta, it has been a while! To what do I owe the honour of your call?”

Her smile widened a bit, pleased to know Mondatta had finally called. They were nowhere near Nepal at the moment, back to their comfortable house in Germany, but that did not mean there might not be a trip in the near future…

A few seconds trickled by, and then a few more, and when she did not hear him speak anymore, she frowned and looked over her shoulder.

His face gave her pause and she swirled around on the stool, suddenly feeling a knot of anxiety rolling in her stomach.

He looked… serious, a frown on his face, shoulders hunched up around his head, and as she watched him, he curled his fingers into a fist, tight and unforgiving.

Something was wrong.

“I understand,” he finally said, voice even, and she was worried even more by the lack of an inflection to it. “It is… fortunate, Master Mondatta. I have a close relationship with some of the sentai rangers… or, well. With a few of the old guard, so to speak. Please rest assured, I will come as swiftly as I am able.”

Another silence, just as long as the first, and she watched her mentor close his eyes, an expression of pinched pain that made her heart ache in sympathy, even though she did not know the cause.

When the call ended, he seemed to straighten up, shoulders square and set, glaring down at the phone in his hands with an unreadable expression before he turned around, facing her. “Brigitte, my dear. I am needed somewhere, and it will take a while.”

“Reinhardt, what’s going on? What happened?”

A deep, slow exhale. “Master Mondatta’s brother was kidnapped, and he has requested my support.”

Brigitte blinked, a cold feeling spreading through her body as she realised what this meant.

They had never met Mondatta’s brother, though he often spoke of him, because Zenyatta had already started travelling by the time Brigitte and Reinhardt had happened upon Mondatta, saving him during a particularly difficult attack of a monster, and in the next couple years, they’d visited only a few times, but Brigitte had seen Mondatta grow more and more vague about his brother’s whereabouts, until he had finally confided in Reinhardt, explaining how his brother had fallen in dire times while at the same time refusing to go into detail.

Even now they knew little about what that meant, but they had always heard so much of Zenyatta through Mondatta’s tales that Brigitte felt almost a connection with the young monk she’d never met, and to hear the sad news only had her more worried about his health.

Kidnapped. By who? For what reason?

“Who was it? Was it related to Mondatta’s fame?”

“He would not say, at least not on the phone, but we are in luck. He has yet to return to Nepal, and has asked for my presence by his side. Thankfully I have contacts in the city –a few of my old colleagues still reside there, and I will bridge between them and Master Mondatta.”

“Well then. When will we depart?” she stood up, cracking her knuckles, and her cat made a soft ‘brrrp’ noise, blinking lazily at her.

“We? My dear Brigitte, you do not need to inconvenience yourself in such a way. I will be travelling on my own!” Reinhardt shook his head, looking as determined as before, but his posture softened, just a little, as he spoke with her.

“As if! Where you go, I will follow! Someone has to make sure you do not break your neck charging into the enemy!” she offered him a small smile, but her tone was steely.

They were both determined, stubborn individuals –which was why she was learning under his tutelage, and making sure at the same time he was safe as well.

Godfather and all, Reinhardt was still someone she wished to protect, in her own way, and being left behind while he went on to help Mondatta would not sit well with her.

“I would not needlessly charge into the enemy, Brigitte,” Reinhardt sounded sheepish as he spoke, as he was perfectly aware of his penchant for rushing into battle. “I would go there as a guard for my dear friend Master Mondatta!”

“Yes, yes, so that means someone has to come and make sure both of you survive through the ordeal! Not to mention, I wish for his brother to be found as well.” Brigitte looked down at the mech arm she had been working on, then her eyes moved to the side.

In a cluttered corner of the work space, a de-activated shield stared back at her.

“It will be good to see if my new prototype tests well in battle,” she murmured under her breath. “But… I will need someone to come and cat-sit for me, too…”

Reinhardt shook his head, feeling a small wave of pride as he watched his squire –his precious, strong goddaughter– run around the room to grab everything she needed in preparation for their departure.

“Ach,” he said to no one in particular, a smile stretching wide on his lips, “just like your parents, stubborn and loyal as always!”

***

The mood at the base was… tense, when Ana and Jack arrived.

Athena was the only one to welcome them in, not that they cared –their full focus was on reacting quickly, and they were perfectly aware of the effect Zenyatta’s kidnapping had on the sentai rangers.

Twenty-four hours since his disappearance, and no one could find any trace of him. He was simply… gone.

“We were played around like fools,” Jack grunted, walking down the corridor of the base and towards Winston’s laboratory room. “Having that hacking chick sweep right past our noses while we were otherwise busy is an offense.”

“It was our mistake to think that just because Moira was here, things would be under control. Even with the added presence of Master Mondatta, we thought Zenyatta would be safe. We did not expect them to find him right outside our base at all.” Ana let out a soft sigh.

Both of them had been busy reaching out for their contacts, doing field work and attempting to patch together the information Zenyatta had given them, but unfortunately their research had been slow… and the enemy had taken a far quicker approach.

Now Zenyatta was gone, and they did not know how long they had, or if the enemy wished him harm.

They found Winston in the lab, pouring himself on data and analysis of the tests done on Zenyatta before his disappearance.

“Ah, you’re here!” Winston’s greeting was a little subdued, and while his outer appearance did not betray much, his tone was harried and tired.

It was obvious he had yet to rest or sleep, though this time not even Athena had dared to suggest him to take a break.

“Any news?” Jack asked, though he did not have much hope, not in so little time.

“Unfortunately no, nothing.” Winston pushed his glasses up to the top of his head, wiping his face with one hand. “As of right now, we are out of ideas. I have contacted the few people who are in the know, and asked them to start looking. We have no idea where, or who, the attack originated from, but maybe one of them knows someone who will be willing to give us a hand. I also inquired about anyone who might have more information on Sombra without, well, explaining why we’re searching for her. It might be useful to get to know more about her.”

Jack made a soft, disgruntled noise. If only he could get in contact with Gabriel…

Ana placed a hand on his arm, a consolation as much as an understanding gesture, as she knew what he had been thinking about.

“Jack, I know it might be, uh. Uncomfortable, but… I was hoping you could…” Winston turned to look at him, visibly uncertain. “… talk with Genji. He has been… unhappy, and you’ve seen how close he was with Zenyatta. We need him, Jack. We have no idea what we’re hunting down, but we need him to be ready.”

Straightening his back, Jack gave him a curt nod. “I understand,” he replied, voice grave. “They seemed rather friendly, but Genji… he had a look to him that I would consider besotted, if I did not know him any better.”

“Oh, Jack, you do know him well enough. Here I thought your sharp eye had gotten worse during the past few years…” Ana smirked, seemingly satisfied. “That kid was more than besotted. Had the same look to him that you get whenever you think about–”

Rolling his eyes, Jack shot her a _look_. “Not the right time, Ana. I need to have a talk with the kid. I heard his brother is here as well?”

“Ah, yes, but… look, Jack. Hanzo can offer his support, but Genji has refused to listen, and that includes his team as well. I thought, well. He looks mutinous, and you might have a chance to get through to him, that’s all.”

“I see. I will do what I can, but I am not sure Genji would want to listen to me either. Gabe is the one who had Genji wrapped around his finger, not me.”

Ana snorted, and elbowed him in the ribs. “Yet, Gabriel is not here. _You_ are, Jack. So behave and go be another adult Genji can rely on.”

“Mom!”

Ana turned around, her face brightening. “Fareeha! I did not expect you to be here!”

“Angela came back the moment she heard the news about Zenyatta, and I did not want to leave her alone.” Tall, with a secure gait and shoulders squared, Fareeha made her way towards her mother, breaking her stiff composure when she was close enough to threw herself into her mother’s arms. “It’s been a while, mom. How have you been? You should call more often, Jesse would appreciate that as well.”

“Keh, you kids can take care of yourselves without an old woman coming around to nag at you to clean your room, Fareeha.” Yet, there was a tinge of sheepishness in her voice, as she knew she had been rather absent in the past few weeks. “Is he around?”

“He’s offered to take a few of the sentai rangers’ shifts. There was a minor monster appearance earlier this morning, but he and Lena took care of it.” Fareeha rubbed the bridge of her nose. “If you stick around, you should see him later today.”

“I plan to go nowhere until we have more information, Fareeha. Jack and I are staying here with the sentai rangers.”

“Oh, Ana –that reminds me, I… might need you to have another look at some of these results.” Winston motioned for the computer screens behind himself, which were all the tests on Zenyatta’s orbs. “While it is imperative we find Zenyatta, at the moment there is nothing I can do for him, so I thought I could…” the rest of Winston’s words ended up a mumbled mess, and he quickly looked away.

Winston knew how to build connections, but they were at a point where he could only sit back and wait, hoping one of them would ping him back with some news, but… waiting around, doing nothing… it made things worse. Tense. Ana could understand that perfectly.

If it meant trying to figure out other ways to help, including discovering the root problem of Zenyatta’s transformation, then it would still be doing _something_ , rather than nothing.

They still had three of his mala they were monitoring, hoping to see some sort of reaction that would reassure them Zenyatta was… alright, but so far, all of them were motionless, unresponsive and much like dead weight.

Genji had refused to give up the orb he’d found in the parking lot with Sombra’s card, clinging to it and glaring at Winston, who did not have the heart to tell him off for that. Angela had given him the mala Zenyatta had left with her the moment she had returned to the base, so he had two he could freely analyse anyway –that and the one he and Moira had worked on together earlier during the week.

The last mala was still quarantined with the black orb they had retrieved, and while the non-activated nanites inside the black orb had been disrupted by the presence of the mala, his experiments on them were going slow. He had only managed to start analysing the percentage of monster DNA from the actual nanites, but he hoped he would find a way to purge them from it soon, or at least extract it.

He still had no idea how they had been imbued with that DNA to begin with, as raw, clean nanomachines were easily triggered into action, but as soon as Moira’s clearance arrived, he knew she would jump at that chance and help him out.

“I had a look at these when you sent them to Jack, Winston,” Ana made her way towards him with a small wave to her daughter. “Did you not consider the thought that the nanomachines were unable to fully bond with Zenyatta’s mala because they are not considered part of his body? They are his weapons, though he has a connection with them, not extensions of his consciousness.”

Winston brought up a three-dimensional picture of Zenyatta’s mala on the screen, accompanied with the components it was made of and the exact percentage of metals it contained, plus the information Zenyatta had offered about the crystals they contained. He would offer Zenyatta the respect he deserved by not dismantling the mala to see them with his own eyes.

Behind them, Jack and Fareeha left, closing the door of the lab behind their backs, but Winston and Ana were already focused on the screen and barely heard them leave.

“Yes, uh, I have thought of that, but… what do we define as… an attachment, of sorts? An arm that can replace another no matter how recent or different in build is considered, well, part of the original body, while… these, which are still connected to Zenyatta’s main circuitry, albeit not… in a physical way… are considered external?”

“Was that the reason you insisted on severing an arm from Zenyatta, Winston?” there was no reproach in Ana’s voice, but in fact a light tinge of amusement.

“Ah! No, I mean, that was not– Ana–” Winston fumbled with himself, obviously uncomfortable with the sudden questioning directon. “That was not the reason!”

Ana allowed herself a light chuckle. “Yet, I do understand your point. It is rather intriguing. What would make Zenyatta’s orbs different from the rest of his body, enough that the nanomachines have attacked them yet the monster aura has not?”

Winston and Ana looked over the representation of Zenyatta’s mala, eyes moving from the list of components back to the actual thing.

“Well… I just cannot quite understand what would make them different from Zenyatta. There is nothing in the components of his orbs that is special, except perhaps the crystals, but those were sampled from Zenyatta’s own crystals, as he told us. What is it that makes his mala different?”

For a few seconds, Winston and Ana remained silent.

“Could it be Zenyatta’s specific powers?” Winston observed the graphs. “We have had proof that Harmony interacts with nanomachines.”

“Yet it is not something that is born from his orbs. Both Harmony and Discord stem from his own core, and are directed outside of his body through the conduit of his orbs. If Harmony could fully prevent the monster aura, it would not simply return after he has Transcended.”

“Well… but Zenyatta is… well, the orbs are still separate from his body, and thus are not considered a sentient being on their own, or an extension of his body. Yet he uses them to strengthen the connection between Harmony and Discord. Maybe… maybe the connection is a deliberate stasis, and the aura persists through the omnic energy he uses to direct them to do his bidding. It would explain how once separate from the orbs, the nanomachines revert to their original state, but as they are already activated on Zenyatta, they do not seek anyone else to connect with. The Orbs simply… contain the aura and negate it.”

Ana frowned, pulling up the graphs related to the monstrous aura and analysing the higher spikes for a few moments longer.

“If it is tied to the powers of Zenyatta, then now that the mala seem to be inactive, it might be possible to notice a change, as there would be no automatic stasis to keep the nanomachines from functioning again and replicating. The distance between Zenyatta and his orbs might make it impossible for him to use them, as we do not know the depths of his connection to them.”

Winston frowned. “If this theory proves correct, we might have to hibernate and quarantine all his orbs… and we would need Zenyatta to trigger the connection to restore their previous state.”

Ana hummed. “One of the mala is in Genji’s possession, is it not?”

Winston sighed. “It might be difficult to get him to give it up, but unless it starts growing a monstrous aura, it should be alright, and we might even use it as a beacon to find Zenyatta… if we figure out where they took him.”

***

It was no surprise to see Genji absent –he had kept to himself ever since Zenyatta had disappeared, clutching the orb he had retrieved to his chest– but as Angela wandered through the corridors of the base, she could not find Hana and Lucio either.

“Athena, where are the others?”

“Lucio is on a videocall with his manager, he’s postponing one of his concerts due to the situation with Zenyatta.” A pause. “Hana is… in the common room.”

Originally, Angela had wanted to see Genji, just to make sure he was not going to crack –she knew everything about that, and the idea of her friend going through that did not sit well with her– but due to Athena’s pause, she changed her mind and went to the common room instead.

Hana was sitting at the table, slumped over and with her face hidden in the crook of her arms, and next to her head there was a small sealed package.

“Hana…?”

Startled by the sudden appearance of her friend, Hana’s shoulders jolted, but she did not emerge from her cocoon. “Angela~” her whine was no higher than a muffled whimper, and much to Angela’s surprise, she realised Hana was crying.

Moving slowly, she placed one hand on Hana’s shoulder, heart constricting when she heard a small sniffle. Angela was at loss, as she had not realised Hana had cared this much for Zenyatta, but not knowing what to say, she simply remained silent, rubbing circles on Hana’s shoulders, and her eyes moved curiously on the sealed package.

“Will you tell me what’s wrong?”

“I ordered these yesterday. It was–” a hiccup “–just something stupid I did. I thought it would show Zenyatta I was just trying my best. And now he’s–” another hiccup, her shoulders shaking under Angela’s hand, “–he’s gone and… what do I even do with these? He disappeared and the last thing I told him was a stupid _joke_ about lemons.”

Angela felt like she was missing something, so she eyed the package. The receipt stated it was an order for something called ‘Buddha’s hand’, whatever that was, but it was clear Hana was pretty upset by that.

Yet, one thing was obvious –Zenyatta’s presence at the base had made a few things far too clear, including how much Angela, Hana and Lucio had relied on keeping their distance from monsters in order to continue their duties as sentai rangers.

After Zenyatta’s truth had come out, all three of them had needed to accept that something had to change, but that it was impossible for them to do so quickly, even when hard pressed.

Angela had spent the past week stressing out about it, thoughts unable to settle even with Fareeha’s comforting presence and the warmth of Zenyatta’s mala. She owed it to him to find her centre and learn, and it felt like a personal failure that she could not act like the hero she was. It was clear Hana felt the same, and she had to stay, together with Lucio, while Angela took a break.

And by Hana’s clenched fists, these were tears of frustration as well.

“Hana…”

“I know what you wanna say,” Hana’s shaky voice interrupted her, a pair of puffy red eyes and a small frown peeking from the crook of her arms, “that it’s not my fault for feeling like this around Zenyatta. That it’s not my fault and that we’re doing our best. I know all of that. Makes nothing better, though.”

Folding her hands in front of her on the table, Angela took a deep breath.

“It’s alright to cry. It will make you feel better,” she said instead, acknowledging Hana’s words. “It was unfair of me to leave when I was not the only one affected so strongly by Zenyatta’s presence. I am sorry I burdened you and Lucio and was so selfish. I am here now. I promise, I will not leave you to face all of this alone.”

Hana made a soft, displeased noise, then she elbowed Angela, wiping her face on her sleeves until Angela offered her one of her tissues. “Everybody acts so maturely. You left because you knew you needed a break and now you’re saying sorry. And Zenyatta told me he was sorry too because he knew I could not control this. I feel like I can’t do anything. Being a hero used to be simple. We just punched the bad guys and the monsters and felt good about it. We never had to… to talk with the monsters! And right when I finally decide to do my part and show I can be strong too, _now_ he’s gone! It’s rotten! I hate this.”

Angela sighed, lips stretched into a mirthless smile.

“I did have a breakdown too, you know. I did not just leave because it was the best idea. It was Zenyatta who suggested I should leave, and then with… Moira…” Angela’s face twisted in a small grimace. “It was Winston who decided I should take a little longer to come back. I do not have things under control either, and before I came back, I knew I would still be unable to face Zenyatta, but… I wanted to try. Just like you. You remained and you tried to reach out to him. It takes strength to do that, you know? So don’t say you haven’t done anything.”

“Angela…”

“And we can find Zenyatta and make sure he knows he’s welcome here. Get to know him just like Genji did. Become friends. He’s going to be alright, Hana. Whatever he’s been taken for… they needed him to be alive. We just have to do our best to get him back.”

Hana straightened her back, tugging Angela until she was leaning against her, taking comfort in her presence, and Angela exhaled slowly, one arm around Hana’s shoulders.

“We’re going to find him,” Hana muttered, voice angry and determined, hands curled into fists on the table, eyes looking down at the package, still sealed at her side, “and I’m going to become Zenyatta’s best friend.”

Angela found herself smiling, and this time it was a true one, albeit small. “Hana, what if you aren’t compatible at all?”

“Why not? He likes Genji and I’m way better than Genji. And Genji likes him a lot and that guy has _good_ taste.”

Yet, despite the teasing in her voice, Hana slumped back on the table, the smile fading as quickly as it had appeared. “I’m worried, Angela. Genji took Zenyatta’s disappearance… badly. I worry he’ll just… rush into danger again. And we don’t even know where the danger is.”

“I’m worried too. It seems we’re the only ones here with a good head on our shoulders…”

A small, tired smile. “And Lucio.”

“Hmmm. And Lucio, yes.” Another small pause, the silence between them comfortable. “Want to go find Genji and see if he wants company?”

“Yeah. Thank you, Angela.”

***

“Knew I’d find you here.”

Genji did not look up.

He was curled up on Zenyatta’s bed –or what was Zenyatta’s assigned bed at the base, really, though he had barely used it in the time he’d spent there– with the one orb he’d refused to give to Winston clutched in his hands.

Jesse watched him for a moment, observing the slumped posture, the tension in his shoulders and the dark bags under his eyes, clear sign that he’d slept horribly. He looked like a wreck, as expected.

He sighed. “Nah, that was a lie. Had to ask Athena actually, I didn’t know Zenyatta had a room. Pretty bare, isn’t it? When he comes back you should get it renovated for him.”

“He wouldn’t want to come back.” Genji sounded hurt, and angry, and he still did not look up. “I fucked up and he got captured. Who would want to come back here? All he wanted was to go home and now… more than ever, he wouldn’t want to stick around with some shitty fucking–”

“Language, Genji.”

“–useless hero who couldn’t even keep his promise! You don’t get to tell me to cut my language! Zenyatta is gone and we can’t do shit but sit around while he’s who knows where–” the way his voice cracked made Jesse ache “probably getting hurt, or… or disassembled, or…” his grip on Zenyatta’s orb tightened, and Genji gritted his teeth.

Jesse faltered for a second; of all things he had feared when he heard of Zenyatta’s disappearance, getting disassembled had not been one, and now he couldn’t help but think… then he pushed the thought down, refusing to entertain it. What-ifs would help no one.

“It wasn’t your fault, Genji.” he took a few steps into the room, watching as Genji tensed up. Instead of sitting by him, he opted to sit on a chair in front of the bed. “You couldn’t have known–”

“But we _did_ know! We knew someone was targeting Zenyatta! And even knowing that, we left him without a proper escort! It was our– it was _my_ fault!”

“No, Genji.” Jesse tried to convey as much confidence as he could, though he knew it would be hard to get through to his friend. “We thought Zenyatta would be able to protect himself, because he faced them twice. We could not know that he would be ambushed right outside of our base.”

“This isn’t Zenyatta’s fault either!”

“I– I did not say it was. I wouldn’t go blamin’ him either, Genji.”

Genji flinched at that, and shook his head. “I’m… sorry, Jesse. I just… he… I left him alone. I was always by his side, and the moment I was not, he… damn it, I left him _alone_! I promised Master Mondatta, I promised Zenyatta that I would– that I would keep him _safe_! How can I face Master Mondatta like this, how can I… _fuck_!”

He stood up, shocking Jesse enough that he slid backwards on his chair, and started to pace around the small room. He looked like he could not stand still, and Jesse noticed the way his shoulders continued to twitch, and he could recognise the signs of a panic attack.

“Genji. Listen to me. Breathe.” He did not stand up, not wanting to close in on Genji when he was already frustrated and angry, but lifted both hands, trying to get his attention again. “We’ll get him back, Genji. Breathe. You did not do anything wrong. I promise. Zenyatta would say the same, I’m sure.”

“And how do you know?! How do you know he won’t blame me for this?! When he looked up at… at Green sentai so much, when I made so many promises and I couldn’t keep even _one_?! I left him! I left him and now he’s who knows where and alone again and–”

Genji stumbled, his shoulders hitting the wall behind his back as he doubled over, breath coming out in short, raspy bouts. Jesse did stand up this time, both hands on Genji’s shoulders to steady him. “Easy, easy, Genji. Breathe, alright? Focus on my voice. Might not be good soundin’, but it’s all I’ve got. _Breathe_.”

It was obvious it wasn’t working as well as it should, but Genji gulped in a couple times, nails digging into both Zenyatta’s orb and his arm, and slowly, far too slowly, his breathing calmed down, shifting from erratic to somewhat normal, his chest heaving.

Jesse felt useless –he was pretty sure anyone would have been a better help than he was, but he was the one who was here, so he would have to make do. “I know it’s hard to believe me now, Genji, but we’re doing all we can. We will find him and get him back. I promise.”

“You can’t really promise that, Jesse.” Genji turned to look at him. There was still something wrong with Genji’s stare, a little bit too sharp, perhaps a little wild. “Promises mean nothing when we don’t know where he is. You can’t promise he’s going to be okay.”

Jesse rubbed the bridge of his nose, self-conscious. “I know that, but… what else should we do? Call him dead and forget he exists?”

Genji’s eyes widened, a flash of rage in them. “No!”

“Then tell me, Genji!”

“I…”

“Zenyatta… I don’t know how he is. I don’t know if he’s alright. But… we just got to hope, okay? Because he’ll wait for us. You promised you would keep him safe. He will be waiting for you to come. I’m sure of that.”

Genji crumbled on himself a little more, shoulders shaking. “He’s going to hate me.”

“He won’t.”

“You don’t know that!”

“He would _not_. And I get you’re unreasonable right now, but don’t do this disservice to him, Genji. Keep yourself together!”

That seemed to have a reaction, because Genji froze, gritting his teeth again.

“So this is where you came to hide.”

Jesse and Genji both looked up. Jack was standing near the door, expression grave, a frown on his face. Genji stiffened at his words, eyes narrowed.

“I’m not hiding.”

“Are you not? Because you have been avoiding everyone since yesterday, and here I find you, moping on your own like the weight of the world falls on your shoulders.”

Jesse swallowed, fearing Genji would get angry again. “Uh… Jack, maybe this isn’t the way to–”

“Your friend here has spent the morning fighting monsters in your place, because you were here moping,” Jack continued, pointing a thumb at Jesse, and Genji glared at him. “You think this is going to do anything except make you less dependable? If you can’t hold yourself together, Genji, we cannot trust you to stay on the mission.”

“You would not–”

“Removing yourself from that will make it less likely for you to mess up because you don’t sleep, kid. Or eat. We know your friend was taken. We underestimated the threat and we will do our best to get him back, but if you are too involved, you’re going to be a liability.”

Jack’s tone remained even, like he was talking about the weather, but each word drilled into Genji until he turned pale, hands trembling around Zenyatta’s mala.

“I… you can’t do that.” Genji sounded weak now, hesitant, and Jack stepped forwards, slapping one hand on his shoulder.

“We won’t have to, if you get yourself together. Go see Ana and get some food. I can’t ask you to sleep, you don’t look like you will get any right now, but you still need to eat. Keep your head on your shoulders, and you will be the first to know the moment we find something. Got it?”

“Yes.” Jesse watched as Genji’s shoulders slumped in defeat, surprised by the effect Jack’s words had on him.

He passed by Jesse, hesitating, and Jesse was almost startled to hear a soft ‘thank you’ coming from him before he left the room.

“You sure that was the right thing to do?” turning around to look at Jack, Jesse was surprised to see him rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“I’m not made to offer comforting words, McCree,” he said, addressing Jesse by his surname. “I’m better at forcing people to hold it together even if it makes them resent me. And Genji needs food.” He hesitated for a moment, eyeing him up and down, then added, in a harsh tone, “and so do you. You’ve done enough. Go get some rest.”

“Nah, I’ll grab some coffee and it will keep me up and about. Never know when the next monster will pop up.”

“If it does, it might be good if you leave it to your elders. Best not to end up getting rusty.”

“Y’know, now that you mention it, I can almost smell the dust covering you ancient relics–”

“Just because Reyes is not here to get you to tone it down doesn’t mean I won’t do it, McCree.”

“Yes sir!”

Though it was true that Jesse had worked in the past with Winston, it was also true that his work with the previous iteration of the sentai rangers had been under Gabriel Reyes’ command, and his interactions with Jack had been minimal, enough to not be awkward but not enough to say they were on friendly terms. Gabriel was the one connection Jesse had with both Jack and Genji.

“Also, don’t let Ana hear you call her an ancient relic. You wouldn’t like what she’d do to you. Or well. I could just tell her,” Jack added, his tone shifting to something a little less monotone and a little more teasing, and it startled a gasp out of Jesse.

“You _wouldn’t._ ”

“You get some rest –not just coffee, but actual rest– and I will think about it.”

“You are a devious man, commander Morrison.”

“It’s just Jack, now,” was his answer, curt but not cold. “It’s a lot less troublesome, and far more rewarding than being a commander, I tell you.”

“I’ll take your word on that. Now, if you excuse me, someone blackmailed me to get food and rest, and I’d better follow through.”

“Good choice.”

Jesse strolled out of the small room like he owned the place, and Jack shook his head, ready to follow him, when Athena’s voice halted him.

“Commander… Jack. Someone contacted Winston. We might have a lead.”

Expression sharp, Jack offered a curt nod and marched out of the room.

 


	27. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for last week's radar silence, but i simply was unable to finish the chapter in time due to RL stuff and poor time management due to that. I deliver a longer than usual chapter to make up for it, and sorry again! Thank you for being awesome, i hope you like this chapter :D

**Chapter 26**

The monitors in front of him switched between data sets, familiar after staring at them for so long –variations tested from the same starting point, highlights where Winston wished to analyse further, red lines that could not be pursued any longer.

They showed and condensed all the current information on Zenyatta’s health into a series of numbers and calculations on graphs and charts. Some he could recognize and vaguely understand –one chart on the workings and contents of Zenyatta’s mala, another graph related to the monstrous aura– but overall, comprehension of this vast amount of information was beyond him.

Hanzo found himself staring at them, a part of him convinced that if he looked long enough, he would crack whatever code kept him from understanding the graphs, but of course it did not work, though Hanzo was nothing if not stubborn.

Athena had summoned him to the lab just after lunch, citing Winston’s need for his help, and when he’d arrived there he had found Winston in the company of Ana again, both of them hunched over one of Zenyatta’s orbs on the table.

It was still unresponsive, contained within a glass dome in the middle of the lab room, with wires connecting it to the main bulk of the computers and Athena’s mainframe.

Watching them work did not offer any insight, but neither did staring at the monitors in hopes for them to suddenly make sense; he gave up for the moment, attention shifted to Winston who had patiently waited for him to speak.

“So tell me… what is it that you wished to ask of me?”

“It has been mentioned, well, more than once that Zenyatta has… some kind of connection with… uh…” Winston fumbled with his words, making an aborted motion with one giant hand, then turned to look at Ana, who hummed and offered him a supportive nod. “the supernatural…?”

“There is no need to mince your words with me, Winston. My brother and I have first-hand knowledge over such matters, as you well know.”

“Hum. Yes. That. Well, exactly that. Zenyatta has… not quite explained what his beliefs in regard to the Iris are, though the Shambali’s teachings are easily found on any online community, and Master Mondatta himself might be willing to further explain to us if we ask, though… with Zenyatta’s disappearance, he has closed himself off, and Athena said, well… he has to return to Nepal, and we are not…”

“Winston.” Ana placed one hand on his arm, supportive. “Master Mondatta has shown us no ill will, and would not begrudge us anything that we could use to help Zenyatta, though admittedly, it might not be the best time to ask for that, now. I did tell you, if the only reason you will not ask him for further explanation is because you feel responsible for Zenyatta’s kidnapping, you should not worry. He does not hold any of us responsible for that, so blaming yourself will serve no purpose. Trust yourself, and us, and let us all work together to bring Zenyatta back, doing all we can.”

Winston straightened his back, and while his face did not betray any change, Hanzo felt something shift nonetheless. “You are right. I will not disrespect Master Mondatta’s faith in our abilities. I will make sure Zenyatta is brought safely back to him. Yet, asking about the nature of the Iris now when he is grieving, when I am not sure it will help us find him might not be the best option.” He turned to look at Hanzo again. “Zenyatta has mentioned, more than once, that there is some kind of connection between the Iris and Genji’s dragon.”

Though at first surprised, Hanzo allowed himself a moment to think, and realised that in truth there was little to be surprised about.

He was no expert on the Shambali and their beliefs, other than what little he had learned over the years, but the nature of his spirits, their positive emotions and powers, could very well be connected to the Iris, said to be linked to peace and equality.

It was not like he could disbelief its existence, when he had proof of it through Zenyatta’s own powers.

He exhaled slowly. “… it could very well be true, though it was nothing we’ve ever been taught. Our family’s relationship with dragon spirits has existed for centuries, but what we’ve been taught, passed over to us, generation to generation, never mentioned where the dragons might come from, or where they reside when not called by us. It was always… considered inauspicious to question how little we truly knew, so rooted our family was on archaic ways and beliefs, that they were afraid to bring misfortune on themselves by overstepping on that connection. Treated more like blood right than gift, as it was, and never to be shared with strangers. Yet, times have changed, and so did the needs of people. It is why I have become a hero. It is why my dragons are still with me, and did not deny me this path but have decided to walk upon it at my side.”

Winston nodded at that, well aware of the fact that until recently, the Shimada family had been on a rather different path, not at all heroic.

Hanzo turned around, pacing through the room, hands clasped behind his back. “If the Iris is truly more than just a figure of belief, but an actual spiritual energy on a different plane of existence, attuned to the souls of those who can touch upon it, as Zenyatta has demonstrated… if he could feel a connection between Genji’s dragon and the Iris… it would be indeed something I would like to know more about. But… Winston. Why would you bring this up to me… now?”

Winston and Ana exchanged a look. “We might have determined a correlation between Zenyatta’s powers and the fact that his mala seem to keep the monstrous aura in a stasis, and if we are correct, now that the connection between Zenyatta and his mala has been severed –at least, the mala we have here…” Ana hesitated. “The nanomachines might be triggered into working again, and without Zenyatta there to control them, we might need to quarantine the orbs again. Including…”

“… the one Genji has. I understand.” Hanzo frowned, considering. “You wish to try and do a few test runs with my dragons to see if they truly are connected to the Iris, and it would possibly stop the reaction of the nanomachines, is that correct?”

“Yes. We don’t want to alarm Genji yet, or mention he might have to give up on that one orb. I…” Winston’s shoulders slumped. “Forgive me for asking you something you might not be willing to do, Hanzo.”

“No.” Hanzo looked right into Winston’s eyes, and offered his open fist to him. The tattoo on his arm glowed a pale blue, his twin dragons answering his call without hesitation to bubble on the surface. “This theory hinges on many ‘might be’ but I am here to do all I can to help, and it is not simply because of my brother that I wish to do this, or because I am a hero. Not to mention anything new I might learn about my dragons will be a victory for me, and another way to spite my family. I will do all I can.”

Startled but relieved, Winston looked down at his tattoo, then up to his face, and offered him a stretch of his lips. “Thank you.”

Their conversation was interrupted by Athena’s symbol appearing on top of the graphs and data on the monitors, soon followed by her voice coming from a speaker. “Winston? Incoming call.”

“Ah, yes. Redirect to the lab, please.”

The monitor in front of them blanked out, and then the image changed into that of a cozy, well-furnished office room with a vase of crystalized flowers in a corner but absent of actual people.

Winston and Hanzo exchanged a puzzled look. “Uhh… hello? Is anyone over there?”

A familiar voice echoed from somewhere out of sight “Oh! You answered! Wait! Wait! I’m coming!” followed by the sound of slippers on tiles, and then a face finally appeared on the monitor, hair ruffled and cheeks red.

It was a woman on the plump side, with a pair of brown glasses perched on her nose and dark, messy hair. As she shuffled to sit in front of the screen, she pulled up her hair in a small chignon, pinning it in place with a long, decorated hairpin, a few strands slipping past in her haste.

“Mei-Ling!” Winston found himself smiling. “I have not heard from you in what, six months? A year? You look… huh. You look… tired?” he yelped, Ana’s pointy elbow planted deep in his side, and cleared his throat. “I mean. Uh. You look absolutely dashing, Mei!”

Mei giggled, dimples forming at the corners of her mouth, amused and not at all insulted. “On, you don’t need to sweeten me up, Winston. I was working till late on some equations, I know I don’t look my best, haha!” she blinked, noticing Ana at Winston’s side, and then Hanzo a little further back, and waved at them. “Ah, forgive me, I did not see you! My name is Mei-Ling Zhou, I’m an environmental scientist currently stationed at Ecopoint–Antarctica! I specialize in abnormal climate phenomena and their effects on different ecosystems around the world, and… uh, maybe it might sound a bit boring, but I promise you it’s fascinating!”

Hanzo blinked at the enthusiastic greeting, his own lips pulled up in a smile. “It is a pleasure meeting you, Mei-Ling. My name is Shimada Hanzo.”

“Oh! From the Shimada Enterprises…?” with a small, happy squeal, Mei leaned forwards, clapping both hands together. “We have received funding from them! Oh my god, thank you! I promise, we’re putting those funds to good use!” then, much to Winston’s amusement, she broke into a huge yawn, hastily covering her mouth with one hand and looking sheepish. “Forgive me, it’s still… pretty early, I guess.” She pointed at a clock behind her, which showed it was almost five in the morning.

“Do not fret, we understand,” Ana reassured her, also charmed by Mei’s attitude. “Ana Amari, likewise pleased to meet you Mei-Ling.”

Mei flashed her a bright smile.

Winston cleared his throat. “Mei… while I am, well, happy to see you after so long… is there a reason you would call me that early?”

“Oh! I actually received your mail!” Mei-Ling tapped her chin, collecting herself. “The one where you ask if we know anything about ‘Sombra’. I read it only a few minutes ago because I was working late, but it sounded urgent so I thought to call you. Maybe you already got help but I just…”

“Mei, you have… do you know anything about Sombra?” and with this, Hanzo, Ana and Winston turned their full attention on her, expressions and stances shifting to something sharper, tense.

She seemed to notice, because the last of her mirth faded, and she simply looked serious. “Yes, I do. Not much, because I… we never had anything to do with her personally, not here, but I have… a friend. She… well, she works for someone and this person ended up getting contacted by Sombra, so she asked my friend to work with someone who… oh, I don’t make much sense, do I?” Mei shook her head. “I mean… I know someone who knows someone who’s collecting information on Sombra. They’ve had a few run-ins with her in the past, and it only made them more curious. They have been hunting her down for the past year, so I thought maybe they would be able to help…? I do not know what you need to know about Sombra, so I thought I would talk with you first, so I would not waste your time or that friend of my friend’s.”

It took a few seconds before Winston could speak –the shock of realising Mei, of all people, one of his old colleagues and friends, had actually a possible connection with someone who could…

“Sombra has been implicated with…” Winston looked over at Ana, then straightened his back, realising that it was his call how much to divulge to Mei, “the disappearance of someone. We do not know if she orchestrated the whole thing or was simply working for someone else, but we have proof of her involvement. We are attempting to find out as much as we can on her, and find where this person was taken.”

This startled Mei, her face turning pale for a moment, heavily contrasting with how red her cheeks had been until then. “Oh… a kidnapping…? For a ransom? That I know, she’s been only associating herself with hacking and… well. Not _this_. I’m sorry, Winston, I had no idea. If you need information on her, then, my friend’s friend will be the omnic you need!”

Winston nodded, and Hanzo was surprised to see how still he could be, not an inch of his body moving where usually he would be fidgeting or shuffling. “It _would_ help us a lot, Mei. Can you call your… friend of a friend, and get them to contact us directly?”

“Yes, I will!” Mei nodded to herself, wringing her hands together. “I will call my friend right away! Ah, but… I guess she might still be asleep, it’s… rather early where she lives, so… I will call her first thing in the morning and make sure she calls her friend as soon as possible. I promise not to tell anyone else what’s going on. I hope they can help you, Winston.”

She looked honestly distraught at the thought of someone’s kidnapping, though she knew nothing about who it was.

“If I can do anything else, Winston… I know this isn’t the way I wanted us to talk after so long, but with my work, and everything, I easily lose track of things, and I’m sorry this is how we ended up talking but… listen. My job will continue without me. If you need me to come, I… I will, I promise!”

Winston offered her a smile, and his voice sounded a little warmer as he spoke, shaking his head. “Thank you, Mei. I appreciate the offer. I think we have it covered, you know –sentai rangers and all. But I’ll keep you updated. Now you should, uh… get some rest, maybe?”

“Oh, it’s no problem, it’s just–” a yawn stumbled out of her lips, covered quickly by a hand. “five am, not that bad.”

“Mei–”

“I’ll go get a nap after I finish inputting the equation in the computer, and probably by then my friend will be awake, so I’ll call her, and then I will take a nap. I’m sorry I can’t do anything else, Winston.”

“No need –you did more than you think. Thank you, Mei.”

She could read the atmosphere rather well, so the call did not last any longer than that, and when Athena disconnected her, Winston’s shoulders slumped a little in obvious relief.

“I did not… expect help to come this soon,” he admitted, his tone almost awed. “At this point, anything would be a blessing.”

He allowed himself to slump on the keyboard, feeling just a little more hopeful. He considered Zenyatta’s kidnapping as much his own fault as not recognizing properly the kind of danger Sombra and Reaper posed, and due to this, he had caused a civilian, no matter how compromised, to end up kidnapped.

Rest would have to wait.

“Call Jack here, Athena,” he told his AI. “He will want to know.”

***

Despite her promise to be fast, it took Mei’s contact two days to call.

During that time, Genji had more or less returned to active duty, as a way to ensure Jack would not withhold information from him, and a small part of him kept hoping he could at least exhaust himself long enough to sleep, since the nightmares, that had somewhat abated thanks to Zenyatta’s help and support, had returned with vengeance.

He spent the nights tossing and turning in the small room that had been Zenyatta’s, attempting to recall how he had always helped him to calm down after a nightmare, but with little success.

Most of his dreams, well… they were about the nanomachines, but the nightmare had twisted further, and both times he woke up, panting and with a scream strangled between his gritted teeth, it was because he watched the nanomachines destroy Zenyatta in front of him, leaving behind nothing.

Jack might have been right in pushing him to work, but nothing could take away this distress, and his feeling of uselessness.

True to his promise, Jack kept Genji as involved as he could, sharing with him Winston and Ana’s discovery about Zenyatta’s orbs and also telling him about Mei’s call, allowing Genji to be present in order to continue testing the monstrous aura on the orbs.

It was during one of those sessions that Mei’s contact finally called.

“Winston, someone is attempting to contact us.”

“Who is it, Athena?” startled out of his train of thoughts, Winston turned around to stare at the screen, Athena’s symbol flashing on its surface.

“The caller has an extensive protection around their ID. I have no idea how to parse through it –they seem to be calling from… the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I would say that is _not_ where it’s coming from.”

“Huh.” Winston’s eyes widened as he realised it might be Mei’s contact. “Athena, accept the call.”

The monitor in front of him flickered once, showing an omnic’s face on the forefront. The background was a non-descriptive room, lights lowered enough to obscure the view of any specific detail.

The omnic’s forehead array flickered, a flash of light scanning the monitor before they offered a small wave. “Greetings, sentai ranger base. I am Lynx Seventeen. I understand you require my services.”

Genji leaned closer, observing the omnic. They were a model different from the Shambali, from Zenyatta, head built as a single block with a wider mouth piece, two slits that gave them a curious look, a three-point array of a similar shade of teal to Zenyatta’s one and two antennae on top of their head, which moved slightly as the omnic observed them.

Winston cleared his throat. “Ah, yes –you are… Mei’s contact, right? The… friend of her friend?”

“Somewhat, yes,” there was a tinge of amusement in their tone. “Mei’s friend is… well, I wouldn’t say a friend of mine. More like a nuisance, but… still mine. She said you need information on Sombra.”

“Yes.” Winston, as if sensing Genji was about to speak, reached out with one hand to stall him, and Genji bit down on his lower lip. “We need as much as you are willing to tell us about her. I assume, uh, that you were told why we need…?”

“A kidnapping, yes.” Lynx Seventeen’s left antenna twitched a bit. “Does not appear to be in tune with the rest of Sombra’s… CV, so I would like to know more.”

Winston hesitated, unwilling to give too much information when he had no idea what to expect –yet, this hacker was no hero, was not tied with the hero association either, and while he could not be sure about his personal allegiances, he hoped that Mei would not direct him to someone trustworthy. “I am not… sure we could disclose sensitive information so easily without some kind of reassurance on your stance.”

“Ah, I get that. You don’t know me at all, I respect that. Smart, really, but you did not look for me –you were sent to me through a common acquaintance. Even if you cannot trust me, you should trust her.” Lynx’s tone sounded amused. “Not that I care whether you trust me or not, but sorry to disappoint –I want to help you for purely personal reasons. I am invested in Sombra’s case, and my motives are nothing as heroic as saving some poor kidnapped guy. I can’t make you trust me, but hey –what do you have to lose?”

Winston still appeared reluctant, but he did trust Mei, and he could see that Genji was getting even more antsy as they spoke, considering how Lynx might be their only chance to find some hunch to track Zenyatta down.

With a deep breath, he pressed one hand on Genji’s shoulder, and started to explain the situation, avoiding any mention of Zenyatta’s monstrous status or the nanomachines attacking civilians, keeping his descriptions simple but offering information about Zenyatta’s fight with Sombra and her abilities as Zenyatta had experienced.

“It is not rare for her to team up with others, but she rarely chooses to interact this openly with her targets. As long as she can manipulate or hack her way into something, she will avoid direct confrontation unless it benefits her.” Lynx’s antennae turned to the back of his head, wary. “And you say she appeared to aid someone else?”

“Reaper.” Genji couldn’t help the distaste in his tone, even though he’d never met this ‘Reaper’ before. “Though we have no proof he was involved in Zenyatta’s kidnapping, they attacked Zenyatta together before. He…” Genji looked down, gritting his teeth. “I don’t care what Sombra can gain through this. I don’t care about why she was involved. All I want is to find Zenyatta.”

Lynx Seventeen tilted his head to the side, observing Genji for a few seconds, both of his antennae moving low to the side of his head, and while he had no changes of expression, as an omnic’s face could not change, just that small shift made him look pensive. “This feels a little more personal than just saving someone’s life, but if we are both looking for Sombra due to some personal vendetta, I can assure you that we’ll get along just fine.”

“What did she even _do_ to you?” Genji looked up, meeting Lynx’s optical receptors. “Is it just some sort of hacker pride?”

“Seriously?” Lynx Seventeen’s antennae twitched straight up, then one shifted to the side, and somehow it helped convey a sense of amusement. “Just because we both are hackers doesn’t mean that it’s why I’m hunting her down. She hacked me, risking my life in the process, and I was only saved due to my… acquaintance not being as horrid as she could have been in the process. But hey, I don’t _really_ hold grudges. I just get even.”

Lynx Seventeen leaned forwards, fingers linked in front of their mouth piece. They appeared completely at ease despite what they had just revealed.

“You don’t really–” Genji spluttered, for a moment surprised enough to be left speechless.

“Yeah. I did not die, did I? Somehow, I still live. So to speak. I just want to get back at her for the… _inconvenience_.” Casually, Lynx Seventeen offered them a shrug. “So. Do you still require my assistance?”

Genji’s eyes narrowed. “ _Yes_.”

“Then let the expert do their job.” Lynx Seventeen straightened their back, wriggling their fingers as if wanting to demonstrate their willingness to do their part.

Shaking himself out of his surprise, Winston hastily nodded. “Ah– of course. Thank you for your collaboration!”

Lynx looked at Genji, his tense posture, expression making it obvious what he was thinking, and how affected he was, and let out a soft, artificial sigh. “Just wait to thank me when I actually bring out the results.”

***

“Winston? We have a visit.”

Winston wiped his face with one sweaty palm, almost forgetting to push the glasses out of the way to do so, and squinted away from the raw data input he had in front of him.

“Huh?”

“Winston, you have been working on this data for the past three hours.” Even Athena sounded exasperated, though there was a tinge of fondness in her tone. “Well, we’ve got visitors, so you can drop what you are doing and head over to the entrance.”

He stood up slowly, stretching the kinks in his back carefully, then checked the clock. Athena was right –he had managed to work right through lunch, once again. Days seemed to blend in far too quickly, lately, but work made things more bearable.

It made him feel like he was not just waiting and hoping, but actually… doing something.

After the initial contact, Lynx Seventeen had only spoken to him through e-mails, compiling everything about Sombra they knew and working to use it to their benefit.

Sombra, it turned out, was a slippery eel; she had threatened the employer of Mei’s friend, who in turn had sent her on a wild goose chase to a small Mexican town, where she had managed to stall Lynx Seventeen and Mei’s friend for weeks as they attempted to track her down.

For a period, she had been part of a local organization –though, Winston recalled with a frown, it was more of a gang than a proper group, whose members acted up against the local government and painted skulls and bones in phosphorescent paint on their bodies. The Los Muertos organization had not wanted to rattle out about Sombra, even if she was not part of it anymore, but there Lynx had been able to gather some information on her, and scope out her actual skills.

The way her hacking abilities worked was a bit of a mystery, but they were not, as Winston had feared, a power like that of the sentai rangers. Sombra used her technology in a way that made it seem like magic, but it was still science, and in a way, Winston found himself far less worried about her.

Magic was finicky, volatile, and hardly explainable, harnessed and used but rarely truly understood, but technology, even one as advanced as hers, was still something he could tackle.

Metaphorically, at least.

Lynx Seventeen had offered no estimate on how long it would take them to deliver some results. They had been working on her trail alone for months, and before Mei’s friend had worked alongside them, they had been sure the Sombra collective was a group of people, not a single person, yet their skills with hacking and collecting info were impressive, and with all the extra Winston had offered in exchange for this partnership, they had seemed positive they would find, if not Sombra herself, at least a link to use to track Zenyatta down very soon.

Ten days since Zenyatta’s disappearance and waiting was still the only thing they could do.

When Mondatta had announced his return to Nepal, it had felt like a failure. The trip to the airport had happened quietly, as the city council had been forced to keep it under the radar of the media due to Mondatta’s insistence on the matter, but with him gone, Genji’s mood had plummeted further down, as he’d somehow believed he would be able to find Zenyatta before Mondatta had to leave again.

Yet, it was nothing any of them could prevent. Mondatta’s presence complicated matters, and prevented them from devoting their attention on protecting the city and also on finding Zenyatta again, and with the media still on them, it kept them on a leash they did not need.

Mondatta had seemed to understand that better than anyone, and had assured them, over and over, that he preferred to return to Nepal and make sure they had the time and freedom to search for his brother than stay and be a hindrance.

Still, escorting him back to the airport had not been an easy feat for the sentai rangers.

The Shambali leader had thanked them profusely for their help, showing nothing of his inner turmoil, but his hands were shaking, and when he bowed to each of the sentai before departing, he had faltered, looking a little less secure, a little more frail.

Winston did not know if he’d said anything to them at that time –despite the security cameras, he had no audio, the rangers wore masks, and Mondatta was an omnic with no lips to read, even on camera– but he had seen the way Genji’s shoulders had shaken, the way he had stilled, for just one second.

It was possible Mondatta had once again tried to remind Genji that he had no fault, but Winston knew Genji would not listen. Every day without any info on Zenyatta was one more day he would spend unable to forgive himself for letting him get captured, and things would not change until they found him.

“Winston?”

“Ah! Yes, yes, the visitors. Athena, who is it?”

“Oh, you’ll be pleased, just you wait.”

Winston took that in stride, and his walk to the entryway of the base was brisk, and his pace sped up once he heard noise coming from the entrance hall –actually, a very familiar, booming voice.

“Ah my friend, it is fabulous to see you again! It has been what, three years since the last time? You have _never_ even called me! Shameful!”

He turned the last corner and there he was met with the peculiar sight of Jack dwarfed into the arms of yet another one of their older comrades, Reinhardt Wilhelm, who was squeezing him into a hug.

“Reinhardt, please, if you could just– urk!” Jack, resigned to his fate, only made a perfunctory attempt to get free before slumping into the hold with a grunt. “I have missed you as well, my friend, but your hugs… I did not miss them at all.”

Ana was standing nearby, arms crossed on her chest and a smirk on her face. “Talk for yourself, Jack. If you do not know the good things you find in life, all I feel for you is pity.”

“Ana! Look at you, how beautiful you always are, my dear!” Reinhardt dropped Jack right away at that, and Ana made her way towards him, smirk melting into something softer and happier.

On her way to Reinhardt, she took particular care to elbow Jack in the ribs to push him to the side.

“Reinhardt, as usual your presence is… captivating,” she said when he took hold of her offered hand and kissed it, dwarfing it into his own much bigger ones. “We spoke recently, did we not?”

“Indeed –the news of your plight did not fall on deaf ears, my dear.” Reinhardt stood up straight, easily a good head and a half taller than the rest of those surrounding him, Winston included. “Winston! Ah, my friend, it has been a while! I am a bit hurt you would not call for me earlier than this, you know I am never too busy to visit an old friend in need!”

Winston, a bit surprised, shook his head and advanced towards him, only to receive a friendly slap on his back that almost sent him on the ground. “Well, uh… you are retired for a reason, Reinhardt. We did not… we did not think you would want to…”

“It is unfortunate that I have to remind him of that every day,” a new voice spoke up, happy yet chiding at the same time, and Winston turned to look at her. “Hey Winston! I’m here too!”

“Brigitte, what a surprise! You look… amazing!” Ana zoomed past Reinhardt to wrap her arms around Brigitte’s shoulders, dragging her in for a hug. “How is that stubborn ass of your dad?”

“As stubborn as ever, you know it! I’ve been travelling around with Reinhardt for the past few months, so I haven’t seen ‘da in a while, but I called ‘ma and she says he’s fine, just… disgruntled.”

“And when is he not?” Jack muttered, rubbing the sore spot on his hip where Ana had elbowed him. “Brigitte, Reinhardt… why are you here? And who is your companion?”

At Jack’s words, Winston took a step back and realised that yes –Reinhardt and Brigitte were not alone, and there was someone with them, standing a little in the back silent and quiet. If Athena had allowed him in, it meant he had some sort of clearance through Reinhardt, but Winston had never seen him before.

He was… tall, and wearing a hero costume, which meant he was not about to reveal his identity to Winston, which was acceptable as long as he knew this person could be trusted, especially in his base.

The quality of the costume was on par with one of Reinhardt’s ones, and made of the same style, making it more like a standard, if light-weight, armour than a casual outfit like the sentai rangers had; it was reinforced on the shoulders, with a protective metallic padding on his chest and neck area, and rather than a face plate, there was a helmet resembling Reinhardt’s one, the only difference being that instead of covering the entire face, the lower part was attached to a mouth piece, making it clear the wearer was not a human but an omnic.

The armour ended at the shoulders, but it had gloves extending up to the elbow, offering coverage and protection until the wrist, and the hands had knuckle guards, again reminiscent of Reinhardt’s armour style. While the hero’s midsection and thighs were protected by more armour plates, a slate of pale, shiny metal that curved just under his knees before arching up to his sides was the only addition that looked more stylistic than useful, but was pleasing to the eye nonetheless.

He did not have any apparent weapons, though Winston knew from personal experience that many heroes could summon one on the spot.

“Ah, forgive me, I spoke with Athena to bring my companion with me inside! He is a trusted friend, and one I have decided to train in the honoured profession of the hero!” Reinhardt moved to the unknown hero’s side, one hand on his shoulder. “He does not have a hero name yet, but he has delightful skills and aim, though…” Reinhardt glanced over at Ana, his expression soft, “not as sharp as yours, Ana.”

“Oh, you charmer.” Ana moved closer, her eye focused on the newcomer. “Is your companion not about to introduce himself, regardless of his hero name?”

“Unfortunately, my good friend here cannot speak! But what he lacks in conversational skills he makes up with his dashing presence, I’d say!” Reinhardt laughed, deep in his belly and amused, and it made both Winston and Ana smile as well. “I thought coming here would offer him, well, some good field practice!”

“That is, well. We do need all the help we can get, and… if he comes with you, I will trust your judgement, Reinhardt.” Winston glanced over at the newcomer hero. “Welcome to the sentai rangers base, hero. Is there anything we could call you, uh, since you seem not to have an official name yet?”

Seemingly startled at being addressed, the hero hesitated, helmet tilted to look at Reinhardt, almost as if asking for permission –which Winston supposed was appropriate, if he was being tutored by him in his hero matters, together with Brigitte– and then he brought both hands in front of himself, forming two fists with the backs of his hands turned up, and tapped his right fist twice on top of the other.

“Oh, that’s– sign language. Yes. Uh… your name is… Rock?” Winston fumbled a little, reminded of a long time before, when his first foray into human language had started just like this, then pushed the memory back.

Brigitte giggled at that. “He means to say he wishes to be seen as a stone –not fixed in place, but moving in its path and leaving behind a trail. At least, that’s how he explained it last time. He has a way with words, you see.”

“Yes… I guess I’ll see.” Winston hummed, taking in stride what Brigitte had said, then turned to look at the unknown omnic. “I think there would be copyright problems if you wished to be known as Rolling Stone, so we might have to help you out with something less… derivative.”

The omnic’s shoulders jumped a little, and even with the armour dulling the sounds a little, Winston heard a small, huffed laugh, and felt a little embarrassed, though he was glad his joke was well received.

“Was he… informed of what happened?” he turned again to Reinhardt, who nodded.

“He was briefed with what Ana told me, which is not… much. I would like to know more, and Brigitte as well.” Reinhardt stepped forwards, expression intense, and Winston felt a little awed at how easily Reinhardt could switch from a nice, gentle man into someone ready for battle. “It is grave news you shared, my friends, and even graver for what it means. We have met many monsters who ran from us in the past.” Brigitte, face set in a small, worried frown, nodded at his words. “We did not pursue, preferring to keep civilians safe, but… it casts a horrid light on it. We wish to know all you can share.”

“Thank you for coming, Reinhardt. I did not think you would be this quick either. Last I knew you were back home.” Ana offered him an arm squeeze, and behind Reinhardt, his apprentice hero shuffled, almost awkward with their closeness.

“I will always answer when someone calls for my help, Ana. And I was already on my way here, though for… other reasons. I am here now, though. So I will do all I can to help you find young Zenyatta.”

Winston nodded, grateful, missing Ana’s sharp, inquisitive look at Reinhardt and the way Brigitte seemed to straighten her back, as if ready to prove her own worth, when Athena’s voice crackled through the intercom.

“Winston –incoming call from Lynx Seventeen, again an undisclosed location.”

“Finally! Maybe they have some good news. Reinhardt, uh, if you want, you can come with us.” Winston made a motion back to the closest room, unwilling to go all the way back to the lab to answer the call from their new hacker help.

Ana’s hand closed tightly around Reinhardt’s arm instead. “I will debrief him, Brigitte and the new hero, Winston. You take the call and inform us if Lynx Seventeen was able to find something.”

Winston nodded, his mind already focused on getting to a computer to talk with Lynx, and barely glanced back to make sure Jack was following before he left Ana, Reinhardt, Brigitte and their silent apprentice behind.

Athena sent a warning to Genji as well and just as Winston got to the control room, which had one of the biggest monitors of the base, Genji arrived as well, with his brother following him.

“Any news?”

“We were just about to ask.”

The main computer flicked on, Athena redirecting Lynx’s call to that monitor, and the omnic’s face appeared, once again surrounded by an undefined dark background.

“I have some new information you might find interesting.” Lynx started without even a greeting, and while Winston could not read an expression on their face plate, he still noticed a few things, like the way their antennae were both drawn low, the collar of their clothes askew, both sleeves rolled up to reveal thin, polished arms. It was the only hint that make it look like Lynx had spent some time working, rather than resting, but it was telling enough.

The screen split in two parts, Lynx’s face plate remaining in the upper left corner, while the rest of the screen expanded into view to show a familiar symbol Winston had seen before in one of Zenyatta’s recollections.

“One of the things you mentioned in your report about Sombra was that your friend happened to notice a truck with a logo on it. While running around hunting Sombra down, I decided to inquire about that logo as well, in case Sombra’s activities had been logged elsewhere as well.”

On the monitor the logo was replaced by a photo of a non-descriptive beige truck, and much to the surprise of Winston, it was taken at the local exit of the nearby highway.

“Your friend had a rather… well, I would hesitate to call it good luck, considering the situation, but it did help me figure things out. This logo is simple and not well-known, which stumped my contacts a bit at first, except that, as you can see, we found that van entering the city on the day of your friend’s kidnapping. I ran a background check, and found signs of tampering that had Sombra’s signature all over them, though they were rather… half-assed, for her.”

At Winston’s side, Genji stiffened, though he did not speak, waiting for Lynx Seventeen to continue.

“Which, I mean. Fool me once, shame on me,” with a casual shrug, Lynx tapped something else on their keyboard, and the photograph changed, this time into a small video taken from a surveillance droid, of the same inconspicuous van driving past a crossroads, turning right and disappearing behind a corner. “Last time she acted ‘sloppy’ I ran into some trouble, so… suspicious. And yet… here we are.”

A series of photos taken over what seemed to be a long period of time, the van driving through town, and then much to Winston’s shock, he could recognise the area of the city as the part where the base was –in fact, a building behind the van seemed to be the hotel across the street, and then…

“The van could as well not exist. Outside of the city, there are no traces of its passage, and the same happened right after the time for your friend’s kidnapping. For all I could find, the van appeared from thin air at the highway exit and disappeared two minutes after he was kidnapped. No trace of it anywhere. Yet, if Sombra had wanted to truly keep it gone, I would not have any trace of it in this small window of time, which for me means she got sloppy… or for some reason, she meant for this to happen.”

 “But–” Genji spoke up, interrupting Lynx, whose antennae perked up. “What does that mean? If you couldn’t track down the van, then what good will this do? We’re still–”

“Patience, young padawan, I have not finished my report yet.” Lynx had no ability to shoot Genji a glare, yet his tone was chastising. “Because we do have a trace for the van, I could analyse its built and license plate from various angles as it sped across the city, which brings us to the actual focal point.”

The monitor changed again. This time, it listed information about the van, from its model name and serial number to the license plate, down to the exact details of each part it was made of and where they belonged from.

“The license plate is unregistered, so that was a dead end, but! The interesting part is from the identification model number. The manufacturer is small, and for all intents and purposes it should have filed bankruptcy five years ago, due to using subpar equipment, but it got bought out, and well –what it builds now is not sold nor available to the public. It all goes to a single buyer, the company that took over that manufacturer.”

While Genji appeared baffled by what Lynx was explaining, Winston and Jack appeared to be able to follow him better, expressions shifting to cautious interest.

“The manufacturer is probably operating illegally, or at least, someone is covering up for them.” Jack frowned, lips turned into a thin line. “Whoever bought the company had different plans, and it is easier to take over a small business and renovate what is already there.”

“Bingo!” Lynx offered him a victory sign, though his mirth was a mere façade. “It felt a little bit like shooting in the dark, but the bait seemed too interesting not to take. If all the models are in use by a single company, whatever the van is used for will be connected to them. It just took a bit to hunt down the actual company, as it had a lot of protections that I needed to bypass. None of them bore Sombra’s signature, which seems to indicate she was only contracted for this specific situation, or she joined them recently.”

“And…?”

“And, my impatient friend, I found something a little bigger than what you expect.”

All of Lynx Seventeen’s mirth vanished. “The company has investments in many ventures, including foreign import-export, weaponry and fashion.” The monitor shifted to show a few brands that appeared to be relatively unknown, but there were quite a lot. “The problem is, a lot of these ventures are subsidiaries of bigger brands, a little bit like a famous writer publishing under a pseudonym. And, get this –the company itself appears to be nothing but a front as well. But that will wait, since what you need to know is…”

Again, the monitor swapped images, this time to show a photo of a building. It looked like any other, grey and big and bleak, with a small sign with the company name written in red on transparent Plexiglas background –‘Lux s.p.a’.

“This is the main laboratory for pharmaceutical research Lux s.p.a, situated in the outskirts of Numbani. It receives two quarters of its funding from our front society, and the rest of it from subsidiaries of the same society under three different names. This lab specialises in nanomachines research in medicine fields. And now, if you look closer…”

Lynx Seventeen zoomed closer to the building. There was a parking lot barely visible, and there, solitary among other normal-looking cars, was another van with the same logo. “That is the same model. And not just the same model –but the same exact serial number model. It is not another van, but the specific van that was in your city on the day of Zenyatta’s disappearance.”

For a moment, no one spoke.

Silence stretched on, the group far too surprised by Lynx’s casual words to grasp the magnitude of what that meant.

“It could be that–” Genji swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry, heart tight in his throat. “Zenyatta could be…?”

“While it _is_ possible they have relocated your friend to that laboratory, it is only a remote possibility. The van could have been repurposed at some point in the past few days. But it is suspicious, and the connection is there, and perhaps further investigation on site will help us find an actual link between your friend’s disappearance and this front name society.” Lynx hummed, pleased with themselves, and stretched his back. “So. Who wants to take a trip to Numbani, city of Harmony?”

 


	28. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A BIT LATE BUT I MANAGED
> 
> also i would like to state officially that for the month of july i am going to have a part-time job at a summer camp for kids, which i did last year. i remember how it went, i was tired most of the time and by the time it wrapped up i had a heavy depression crash, hhh, so i am not sure i'll be able to keep weekly updates when i start working.
> 
> please be reassured i will stick to monday updates but for july you might get them every two weeks instead of weekly, so i have enough time to survive through the job. kids are tiring.
> 
> thank you for reading and for your continuous support and patience. your reviews are what keeps me going, really :) (so hint hint reviews make me v happy)

**Chapter 27**

_~Ten days earlier~_

The laboratory was sterile, organized without being cluttered.

The walls were a washed out grey, light but not enough to make the atmosphere any brighter, and the entire area was tidied and clean, so much that it looked a bit like a hospital bay.

Zenyatta had resisted and remained awake for the entire trip, though he had no idea how long it took nor where he was, his spatial awareness messed by the hacking of his systems, but by the time the van stopped and the backdoors were pulled open to reveal a bunch of people, most of them in lab coats, his reserves were down to the last drop.

The van had stopped three times since he had woken up the first time, and twice Zenyatta had felt electricity trickle down his back, making his sensors crawl, at the vague realization that they had moved through some sort of static field, though he had no idea what for. For the rest of the trip, Reaper had never moved from a spot on the other side of the van, but Zenyatta’s auricular receptors had caught him grunt every time a static flare passed over them. It was clear he felt them as well, but Zenyatta did not know what that meant.

A part of him hoped that since they never left the van over the course of the drive it meant they were not as far from the city as he feared, but he knew it was a foolish hope, and he was not that delusional. He’d been taken far from the sentai base, far from Genji, from Mondatta, and if he could not get free, it mattered none where he was.

His optical receptors failed twice as he was hauled out of the van and strapped down to another stretcher, the men holding him down switching quickly so they could get away from him, his aura still strong enough to scare most of them away.

In the end, it was Reaper who moved to push the stretcher into the facility, shoulders hunched forwards and looking straight ahead, ignoring Zenyatta and the men wearing lab coats that hurried to follow them.

Before they entered through a back door, Zenyatta caught a glimpse of an open parking lot and a grey, thunderous sky, which made it impossible for him to understand what time of the day it was, or how much time had truly passed.

The stretcher rolled through empty corridors, the sound echoing around Zenyatta, and he tried his best to keep track of every turn and twist, but around him the corridors seemed all the same, long and well-lit, with multiple doors on every side like an endless maze.

Around him, some of the men dressed in normal clothes disappeared, until only the ones in lab coats remained, and then they passed through a different door –reinforced metal and protective energy field, cameras everywhere, and Zenyatta felt almost hopeless, wondering if it would be even possible to escape from this prison.

Yet, he resisted the Discord, unwilling to let it fester due to his earlier fight against himself.

The new area had opened doors, and Zenyatta tilted his head a little to watch as he was pushed past them, catching glimpses of big rooms with hi-tech machinery and giant glass domes, some empty, some unfortunately hosting what appeared to be monsters.

Zenyatta’s optical receptors went off again, mind going blank for a second, but he forced himself awake again as the men pushing him paused in front of a bigger room, and then Zenyatta’s senses were jolted awake as he felt a spike of Discord burn its way through his mind. There was a monster in the room, he could barely see it from the corner of the doorframe, but–

It was not a monster. It was–

The stretcher moved again, and Zenyatta tried to crane his neck to look back, panic filling him at the thought that there were more like him in there, but it was too late. The room vanished behind a corner.

“Where are we taking him?” one of the men following Reaper asked, and the other shrugged.

“Boss said we’d be briefed about it, but she must have forgotten. Just drop him somewhere, it’s not like it matters.”

“I think we have some room in the Execution room.” The man flashed the other a wicked grin that Zenyatta barely caught, auricular receptors catching on the sneer in his tone at the dry comment.

“Heh. As if we’d be allowed to shove this shit in there.”

“Be quiet.” Reaper’s voice was barely above a hiss, but both men were startled into silence by the tone, and even Zenyatta was surprised by how angry he sounded. “Else you will be the ones taking a trip there. You heard what happened to the last one, did you?”

The edges of Reaper’s arms dissolved a little where he was holding onto the stretcher bars, and the men kept an even wider berth, lagging behind in silence for the rest of the walk.

Zenyatta knew that the exchange meant something –but he could barely keep awake, and soon he would have to power down anyway, processes reduced to the minimum so he could recover.

The thought was scary –the idea that he would be helpless to do anything to protect himself from whatever those scientists would do to him was frightening– but there was nothing he could do to prevent this. He was… tired. Exhausted.

Yet the fear kept him straining and awake.

The lab room Reaper pushed him into was lost in the maze of the laboratory, large enough that it had space for four different equipment tech, two glass domes and a lot of machinery Zenyatta had no name for.

Some of it was similar to the ones Winston had, but they appeared to be in better shape, quality and shine making them look either newer or more expensive.

Reaper pushed him near one of the domes, then turned towards the men, a sneer still present in his voice as he ordered them to do their job; Zenyatta knew the men were afraid of his aura, so Reaper’s attitude was a dare for them to get closer, but they looked more scared of Reaper than they were of Zenyatta’s aura, and obliged quickly, even with shaky hands and gritted teeth.

Zenyatta’s synth cracked in pain when the men pushed him off the stretcher, manoeuvring him so he would be tied up and secured inside one of the empty domes, ventilated but separated from the lab by two inches of glass, just like at Winston’s lab.

Trapped.

Cables were secured to the back of his neck and to the base of his spine, and much to his dislike, both of his arms were bound to a slot on the ground at his feet. The glass dome had a flat surface for him to rest, but he was thankfully not bound to it, so he knew he could at least stand and even take a few steps in this cage, though not yet, as he could barely keep himself upright as it was.

Soon he would need to power down, but he hoped that he would be allowed to return to consciousness, afterwards.

“Welcome to your new home, Cultist.” Reaper’s tone was even, no hatred nor vindictive satisfaction in it, unlike what Zenyatta had expected. “Hope you find it to your tastes.”

Part of him suspected that Reaper himself was not pleased, but he had no idea why, nor enough focus to think more about it.

“The company is… rather unpleasant, I fear.” His voice sounded scratched, and tired, but Zenyatta was pleased to see he could still speak, even with his reserves of energy so low.

Reaper snorted. “Tough luck.”

“Sir, we’d better start on the preliminary tests now.” One of the men, relaxing now that Zenyatta was placed behind the protection screen, took a hesitant step forwards. “We–”

“–you will stay put, and keep away from here.” Reaper’s head snapped to the two, and it felt like his body expanded and grew to make him more imposing, because both scientists scrambled backwards, suddenly afraid. “He is not for you.”

That sent both men running, as if Reaper’s words had scared them enough not to even try, and the door to the lab slid close behind their backs.

Reaper turned around, something sharp and biting ready, only to notice that in the moment his attention had lapsed, Zenyatta had finally ran out of energy, and had dropped into hibernation mode, forehead array powered out.

For a few long seconds, he did not move, observing him in the glass dome, the edges of his body frayed and vanishing before solidifying again, then he moved away from him, flicking his wrist closer to his mask as he did so.

“We are here,” he grunted into the communicator. “No difficulties, but…” he glanced down at his gloved hand. The fingers blurred, nanomachines fighting to stay together. His voice coloured with sarcasm. “I need another… treatment, doc.”

He closed the call without waiting to listen what the other had to say, and the silence in the lab was too much for him, because he started to pace, feet disintegrating into thin air only to reform a few steps later, the entirety of his body buzzing.

Reaper glanced down at the orbs that the men had gathered together and placed in a sealed box at the feet of the Cultist’s glass cage, a part of the nanomachines in his body tensing and twisting to reach for them–

“ _No_.”

He did not need whatever… comfort, whatever light those orbs contained –and even then, they would have none, when their owner was unconscious.

Reaper cursed under his breath, and waited for his ‘boss’ to come back.

***

_~Present time~_

Reinhardt’s arm hurt where Ana was holding it, enough that it made him wince.

Her grip was strong, and her nails dug into the skin of his arm as she none-too-gently pushed him through familiar corridors, until they arrived to a small room at the base that Ana was using for herself.

It was mostly bare, as she had no need to take with her much for her stay, and with Brigitte, Reinhardt and the new, yet unnamed hero present with her, the place suddenly seemed a little bit too cramped.

“Well now, Reinhardt, dear,” Ana turned to look up at him. Her voice was sweet, but it was all a front, for her expression was as steely as her empty smile. “Care to tell me who, exactly, told you the name of our dear, kidnapped civilian? Since you know. It was _not me_.”

She was looking at him, and relished in the small, guilty flinch, but she caught with the corner of one eye as the unnamed hero made the same unexpected motion, while Brigitte’s expression faltered into a displeased one.

“Well, shit,” she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “We’ve barely entered the base and someone is already on our ass.”

“Brigitte!” Reinhardt recovered a little from Ana’s words, enough to turn to look at her squire with a disapproving glare. “That language is not appropriate for a good standing hero.”

Ana rolled her eyes, and so did Brigitte, as both of them were quite used to a little less proper language, while Reinhardt always seemed to prefer courteous words to curses.

Well, except maybe in some situations, Ana could easily recall that rather well.

“Ana, my dearest flower–”

“Can it, Reinhardt.”

Reinhardt flinched, just a little, shoulders slumping, and shared a worried glance with Brigitte, who was just as much at loss as he was.

“It was me.”

Despite the helmet covering his face, muffling the sound of his voice, Ana recognised it instantly, even before the new ‘hero’ slid off his mask to reveal Mondatta’s face plate.

Dwarfed as he was in the armour provided by Reinhardt, Mondatta of the Shambali looked… out of place, though most of it, Ana knew, was her own expectations of what a Shambali was, as opposed to what Mondatta was now parading as.

She took a deep, steadying breath. “You did not leave.”

“No.” defiant, back held straight, Mondatta held the helmet in his steady hands. “I have met Reinhardt in the past, and I needed some support that would allow me to stay without compromising the sentai rangers.”

“Master Mondatta,” Ana exhaled slowly. “That is a dangerous gamble you are making. The situation is dire, and we have no idea what sort of situation we will find once we track Zenyatta down. Your presence here could complicate matters.”

“It is exactly why I had to deceive you, miss Amari,” Mondatta replied, tone almost frosty. “You cannot ask me to return home when my own brother has been kidnapped and faces who knows what, _alone_.”

“You are far too involved in this. I cannot allow you to get hurt, and risk having to tell your brother what happened.” Ana’s expression was just as frosty, and the glare she levelled at Reinhardt spoke volumes of her ire. “That you would withhold this information from me, even after I reached out to you…”

“I did what I thought was right, and I do not find fault in that. Master Mondatta called me first, not knowing I had actual contacts within your ranks, so that I could protect him… though by what I know, he does not really need it.” Reinhardt offered Mondatta a small, proud tilt of his lips. “Since the last time we spoke, he took up his training so he would not be caught as unprepared as back then. I am here to make sure he will return home unscathed… with his brother as well.”

Mondatta placed one hand, very gently, on Reinhardt’s arm. “Thank you for your support, my friend. It is more than I could have hoped. But please, allow me to make my own pledge.” He turned to look at Ana, forehead array dim to convey his seriousness. “I will not be convinced to leave. I understand you wish for your teammates to be safe, but please consider that I have by my side a seasoned hero and his skilled squire–” Brigitte scratched her chin, embarrassed at the praise, while Reinhardt simply straightened his back “and I will not get in the middle of your operations, but… I need to be there. Please do understand.”

Ana made a soft, disgruntled sound. “I understand more than you think, Master Mondatta. I have taken my fair share of rushed decisions for the sake of my own personal reasons, and a few of these did not end… well.” She pointed at her covered eye, as if to impress in Mondatta her point, then her shoulders slumped. “It is why I cannot begrudge you this. I will not reveal to the others who you are, but I will also keep you from throwing yourself into danger indiscriminately for the sake of your brother.”

Mondatta’s shoulders slumped, shaking his head and using Reinhardt’s arm to lean on, feeling almost faint with relief. “Thank you, miss Amari.”

“Do not thank me yet. Just because you are here will not change how dangerous this is. If anything were to happen to you, even if we were to rescue your brother, it would make this mission a failure.”

Exhaling a quiet sigh, Mondatta nodded. “He would not take my loss well, that is for certain, as the same can be said for me. I will make sure neither ends up happening.”

Ana nodded, her expression still hard, but not unforgiving, then motioned for the door. “Let us return to Winston. If there are news, we need to know.”

Reinhardt and Brigitte were the first to leave the room, Ana about to follow, when she noticed Mondatta linger behind and it made her pause, the door sliding shut behind Brigitte’s back.

“Do not think I am angry at you, Master Mondatta. Family is important, be it blood or not. For mine, I would do anything, even if it meant disappearing so they could be safe.” Ana had never been one to stick to proper protocol and she showed this by leaning forwards and patting Mondatta briefly on the shoulder. “It might be difficult, but there is no one I would trust more than that big oaf. You will be safe, and we will make sure to return your brother to you.”

Mondatta’s synth made a small, startled sound that was almost a laugh. “Truly, his presence has managed to reassure me already. But… miss Ana… I– that is to say, I had no idea of your involvement, and it was not my intention to get between you and…”

Ana grunted. She could take a hint, and she was not blind –at least, not in both eyes, and definitely not enough not to notice when things were this obvious. “Reinhardt is a man with a lot of care, of love, all of it freely given. I would say he has quite enough to share. All that matters is that this care is returned. Everything else can be sorted out, don’t you agree… Master Mondatta?”

Startled, Mondatta was left speechless as Ana gave him a small, knowing smirk and left the room as well, elbowing Reinhardt who was waiting for them outside.

With a small, huffy laughter, Mondatta slid the helmet back on and followed them outside.

***

“Hey, I think I could… help.”

Winston had called together all his sentai rangers, and flanked by Jack and Hanzo, explained them about Lynx Seventeen’s discovery.

Hana looked elated by the news, the determined frown on her face indicating she was rearing to go, and Genji had a look to him that Winston recognized easily as tentative, cautious hope.

Winston knew it would not be easy, nor quick –just getting to Numbani would take them hours, even with one of the jets down in the basement– but it was a start. It was _something_.

In the end, it was Lucio who spoke up, startling the others enough that they all looked at him.

“What do you mean, Lucio?”

“Well… you see, I’ve had a lot of work to do in Numbani before joining your team –both as a standalone hero and because of my other job. You know, my music.” Lucio flashed Winston a small smile. “A man has to fill his time with something fun, right?”

“Oh! You mean you have contacts in the city that you could… share with us?”

“Well, not _contacts_ , not really, I just know someone who just got in the hero business.” Lucio offered a small, easy shrug, but when he looked at Winston, he was still smiling. “You can totally trust her, I promise. It’ll be hush-hush, and we’d have some local help for when we get there.”

“Well then, when are we going? Can we leave now? I’m ready to kick some a–” Hana punched the air, looking ready to start hell, and Lucio gently elbowed her.

“I do not think all of us should go,” Angela piped in, looking troubled. “We cannot leave the city unprotected in our absence, and Jack and Ana already grilled us on how we must be secretive so not to alert anyone potentially dangerous from knowing about this, and… we would need permits, and passports, and to speak with someone in order to be able to go, and since we _can’t_ – we have to consider this mission an unofficial one. We are not free to act as we want, or else we might risk having the sentai ranger force dissolved, and all the work we’ve done so far will be for nothing. We cannot rush into things like this.”

“I will go.” There was no room left for discussion in Genji’s tone, and in the way he stared at Jack, as if daring him to tell him off.

Jack made a soft, huffy laugh. “I guess that goes without saying.”

Startled, Genji blinked, for a moment looking almost lost before his expression hardened once again with determination, and he nodded at him in thanks.

“I… I wish to go as well.” Angela spoke up, wringing her hands together. “I have remained away from active duty for long enough, and if… if Zenyatta is there, my healing abilities might come in handy.”

“Didn’t you just say this would be an unofficial situation, possibly illegal?” Hana grinned at her, teasing, and Angela smiled back. “That’s my Angela alright, ready to kick some ass even if it’s not following the rules!”

“Two agents should be enough, then. And it goes without saying, both of you should not transform, or use abilities that would be easily traced back to us.” Winston turned to look at Genji, knowing he needed him to understand before allowing him to go on this mission.

“Wait, I don’t want to stay here!” Hana slammed both hands on her legs, as she lacked a table to do that on. “I want to be useful too!”

“Two of you are enough, and don’t forget, Hana, this is supposed to be an undercover mission. We need to keep actively protecting the city. I know you wish to go, but you are also doing your job here.”

Hana bit down on her lower lip, annoyed. “But it might be dangerous to send Genji and Angela on their own!”

“I will go as well.” Hanzo did not move, arms crossed on his chest, and when Genji shot him a surprised gaze, he simply offered him a small, humourless smile. “I promised I would do everything I could in order to help you, Genji. I will come.”

Genji made a small, aborted motion, then nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

“I am grateful for your help as well, Hanzo,” Winston seemed relieved. “Ana will follow you, but will stay on the jet. Reinhardt and Brigitte would be perhaps useful, but they are not… inconspicuous.” He cleared his throat. “Angela, do you think Fareeha would…”

“She would accept in a heartbeat, but if we need to be secretive, she might not be the ideal choice.” Angela offered Winston a small smile. “She does not quite know how to tone things down.”

“Aha, yeah, last time we played a game together she didn’t stop taunting me for a week afterwards, man–” Lucio shook his head. “Can you believe it?”

“Lucio, you did the same last time you won though…”

“Details, details.”

“Well… Genji.” Genji, startled, looked up. “How do you feel about being flanked by Jesse for this mission?”

He gave a sharp nod at that, too focused on the idea of hunting down Zenyatta’s kidnappers to focus on how to get there, and Winston nodded. “Well then. Lucio, please contact your friend. The faster we move, the better.”

“On it!”

***

Genji looked out of the jet, hands clenched tightly on his lap.

Two hours and a half –that was how long the flight would take from their base to Numbani. Considering that any other plane would get there in four to five, Genji knew this was nothing, and yet… it was still too long.

Now that he finally had a direction, a goal, Genji found himself unable to stand still or accept any delay, body buzzing with anticipation and adrenaline.

Outside, he could see in the distance the tips of the buildings of Numbani, standing tall against the red sunset sky, and the sight made his heart clench in his chest.

Zenyatta might be somewhere in the city.

No –he _had_ to be there.

His eyes fell on Ana, sitting comfortably on the other side of the jet seats area, together with that new hero Reinhardt had introduced them. Ana had been the one to offer him a hero name –Pyrite– but Genji had no idea why she’d wanted him to come along, especially since Reinhardt himself had been left behind, but he didn’t care much.

As long as this hero in training remained quiet and out of the way.

“Estimated time for arrival –five minutes,” Athena’s voice alerted them. “We could not register with the local airport, so we will activate the jet’s masking system in three seconds. Lucio set the coordinates, so prepare for landing.”

Genji shot up straight like a rod, adrenaline rushing through him despite his attempts to remain calm.

Slowly, the jet started to descend, its surface rippling with the masking setup that kept it hidden from sight. It was a slow, vertical drop, just as the jet had done when they had left the base, since there was not enough space for a normal departure from the middle of the city.

The building below was actually the local Numbani university, so Genji expected to see a professor, or maybe a student, waiting for them as the jet headed for the inner garden area; instead he saw a little kid, no older than twelve, perhaps, standing in front of the gates.

“Is… is that kid supposed to be there?” he asked, less interested in the little kid and more in keeping their presence secret so he could finally go save Zenyatta.

“That…” Angela squinted, craning her neck to look outside of the jet, spotting the kid Genji was talking about. “I don’t know. Maybe her parents are Lucio’s contacts?”

Hanzo hummed from where he was sitting at Genji’s side. “… I actually believe _that_ is the contact Lucio was talking about.”

“Wait, what? But that’s a kid!” Angela raised both eyebrows to convey her scepticism, and Hanzo offered her a smug smile.

“That kid is Efi Oladele. She recently received a grant from a philanthropic organization, the Adawe Foundation, for her many accomplishments in the robotic field.” At that, both Genji and Angela exchanged a surprised look. “There was an interview with her that was broadcasted world-wide just a month ago. I just happened to catch it on the news, as that is not my field of competence,” Hanzo added, acknowledging their surprise.

“Damn, that kid must be a genius!” Jesse piped up from where he was sprawled at Angela’s side, peeking from over Genji’s shoulders to look outside. “At that age all I thought about was playing cowboy and videogames.”

“Nice to see you haven’t changed over the years, Jesse.” Genji flashed him a smile, though it was a bit forced, as most of Genji’s attention was still elsewhere.

“Ha–ha, very funny.” Jesse stretched, yawning. He’d spent most of the trip to Numbani napping, but it did not look like it’d done much good to him, as he still looked rather tired. “Now I also like coffee. Just like this one, see? Precious liquid from the gods.” He tapped his hand towards his cup holder, where he kept a thermos full of coffee.

Leaning over to look at him from above the seat, Angela bit down on her lower lip. “Jesse, maybe you should try to lower the amount of coffee you consume… that much caffeine isn’t good for you…”

“It’s either this or I start on caffeine pills, darlin’, and I very much prefer the former.”

Angela rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t say much against that as she had a bit of a caffeine fix as well. Besides, she could understand –Jesse’s hero job was only in part covered by state funds, unlike the the sentai rangers who were fully covered and it allowed them a bit of a leeway when it came down to expenses. The lack of financial compensation meant he had to work to balance out his hero career.

It was… unfair, yet unfortunately that was how it worked for them.

“Ever thought about switching jobs?” she asked, more as a casual joke to fill the silence than anything else.

“Well, if it comes down to having to pick something, I guess I could just become a comedian. Catching the bad guys is satisfying, but I could make a living out of poking fun at retail customers,” Jesse continued, lips stretching into a wide smile. “Gotta work on my comebacks, though. Need ‘em snappier.”

From where he was sitting, Hanzo allowed himself a smirk. “Perhaps,” he said, keeping his voice carefully even, “more rest would help with that.”

Jesse grunted, surprised by Hanzo speaking up, a chuckle spilling out of his mouth. “Yeah, I guess, but then again…” he paused, grin wide and amused, “being tired racks some good pity tips, wouldn’t you agree?”

Hanzo snorted, shaking his head. “I would not know –I only tip for… good service.” Jesse snorted, covering his mouth with one hand.

Angela’s eyes flicked from one to the other, not quite catching what they were speaking about, then shook her head. The jet completed its landing and at her side, Genji unfastened his seatbelt and jumped up, unable to stay still any longer. “Let’s go,” he told the others, already sidestepping to get out of the jet.

“Genji, calm down. Hurrying will get us nowhere.” Hanzo watched as Genji ignored his words and pushed the door of the jet open, hopping outside. “… well then.”

Ana and Pyrite stood up, both seemingly content to finally leave the jet, and Hanzo waited until Angela had followed them out, catching Jesse’s eyes for a moment, making him slow down.

“Problems?” Jesse looked a little less amused now, almost awkward. “Listen, sorry if this is… uh… weird to joke about, I just thought–”

“I do understand we did not quite have time to do much other than introduce ourselves,” Hanzo prevented him from speaking further, one hand lifted to stop him, “but I meant what I said. I do not tip workers out of pity.”

“Oh. Oh, that. Yes, I mean, I didn’t want to imply… ugh. Yeah no, sorry about that.” Jesse rubbed his face with one hand, but his lips twitched up in a small smile regardless. “Good to know, so if you come by my workplace again I can just make sure to double my efforts, huh?”

Hanzo regarded him for a moment, eyebrows lifted as far as they could go. “That would be interesting to see.”

“Anytime, Mr. Shimada, anytime.”

“I think it would be fair to call me Hanzo, as we are on a mission together… Jesse.” And Hanzo for a moment sounded just as awkward, a little out of his depth, and it only made Jesse smile wider.

“Hanzo then! Honestly, all the better for me, stiff mannerisms aren’t for me at all.” Jesse did not reach out to pat him on the shoulder, as he would have done with Genji, but he did offer him a quick thumbs up. “And yeah, just call me Jesse. McCree is just for my boss.”

A beat. “Duly noted.”

With a shared glance they moved out of the jet to join the rest of the team, finding them conversing with the girl.

“–and I’m a fan of Lucio’s music, I thought about using some of his tech for a drum-based defense matrix, but I have been working on a project and couldn’t really do much about that… yet.” Efi was saying, talking animatedly and waving her hands around, much to the amusement of both Hanzo and Ana. “So of course I would want to help him since he called me.”

“I’m… sorry, but… I don’t think it safe for you to accompany us,” Angela spoke up, worried about what it would mean to have a minor come with them when none of them were family members and the situation could become dangerous at any point.

“Oh, no, I can’t, it wouldn’t be safe and I would worry my parents!” Efi smiled brightly. “But I can send Orisa with you, she knows everything about Numbani, and her presence will be useful for you!”

“… Orisa?”

“Yes, allow me to introduce you!” Efi smiled and motioned for them to follow, leading the group past an archway of the garden and to a smaller area with wooden benches and small droids watering the plants. “Orisa! Come here please!”

What emerged from behind a corner was an OR-15 omnic model, though it was decidedly different from what any of them had seen before. Normal OR-15 models –built for defense and lacking a personality, with only the basic AI necessary for defending and protecting a specific area– did not have faces, and had a certain motion range that showed how limited their basic thought structure was, while this model was…

“Efi!” the woman-like voice coming from the OR-14 startled the group as the omnic galopped closer, a little skip to her step that made her seem almost light on her feet, and the optical sensors changed appearance, giving the impression that the omnic was smiling happily. “Did you know there are seventy-five flower types in the university gardens? All of them… beautiful.”

“No, I did not know that!” Efi looked at the omnic as she stopped by her side, then tapped her leg with one hand. “Orisa, I want you to meet some of Lucio’s friends!”

“Lucio’s friends are also friends of mine. It is a pleasure to meet you!” Orisa turned to look at them, taller than all of them by a good head, except perhaps Pyrite, but her demeanour made her appear far less intimidating than other OR-15 models, despite her built and the weapon on her right arm. “I am Orisa, programmed to be the protector of Numbani, at your service. Efi believes I will be of help, and your safety is my primary concern, so please allow me to join your team on this mission.”

She straightened her back, shoulders squared and weapon set away from them, her other hand clenched in a fist to show her determination, and Ana, unofficial spokesperson for the team, nodded at her. “It is… a pleasure. If you wish to join us, we will gladly accept your help and guidance for this mission.” She then turned to Efi. “Is it alright? Are OR-15 models not under the Numbani city council control?”

“Orisa was built to be of assistance when needed, and I think this counts as just that, but the city council does not… own her.” Efi crossed her arms in front of her chest, managing to look both her age and serious at the same time. “I programmed her with my grant money using an old model that was destroyed on a recent monster attack in Numbani. The rest of the OR-15 models are useful, but… I wanted to do something more. She will be a good hero by your side.”

“Well, I guess we already have a novice with us, might as well have two –at least this one knows the place. Hopefully neither of you will have a chance to prove yourselves in action, if things go right.” Jesse offered Orisa a smile, tilting his hat towards her.

Orisa leaned forwards a bit, observing him for a few long, quiet seconds, enough that Jesse found himself a bit baffled, her eyes zooming on his face. “Jesse McCree, my database states you were an outlaw, with a reward on your head that could pay back all of Efi’s grant money–”

“Orisa!” Efi, flustered, waved her hands in front of Orisa to stop her. “You don’t say these things to people!”

Jesse blinked, surprised to hear about his own past brought up so easily to him. “Ah, it’s alright. But her database might be a little out of date, I’ve cleaned up nice and there is no more bounty on my head. I checked.”

Genji raised both eyebrows in surprise, for a moment focusing on that. “You never said you have had a bad boy past, Jesse. I’m impressed.”

“Heh, it’s in the past. I’m a good hero now, as reformed as I could ever be. Y’know, growth and maturing and following a decent example and all that.” And with that, Jesse smiled cheekily at Ana, tilting his hat at her.

“That charming attitude you definitely got from Gabriel, not me,” Ana snorted, though her tone had an edge of softness to it that was almost too rare for her. “But I can vouch for this idiot. He’s clean.”

Orisa’s eyes zoomed back on Jesse. “Database updated. Forgive me, hero Jesse McCree.”

“Now, now, it’s no problem, really.” A bit embarrassed by the attention, Jesse took a step back. “So, what’s the mission specs?”

Efi motioned for them to move a little as the lights around the garden flickered on, the last reds in the sky slowly turning into evening. “This is a private area of the gardens, and at this time the only university courses are in another wing, but… Orisa, activate protocol 5-2b, please.”

“Yes, Efi. Protocol Interference 5-2b activated.”

There was a flicker of green light in the area surrounding them, and Orisa’s optical receptors turned bright for a moment.

“I installed a few upgrades on her model, expecting it would be useful, but most of them are still in beta. This… it’s a simple protection, so we will not get overheard –it casts an interference in the radio waves around us, making recording impossible for a duration of at most ten minutes.” Efi cracked her knuckles. “Lucio updated me on the situation, though he would not tell me the details, he said I might not have the right clearance, so I will not ask about that. But I know you are researching on the Lux s.p.a and believe it might have something to do with your friend’s disappearance, right?”

“Yes.” Genji spoke again, expression dark. “Do you know anything about that place?”

“Nothing. They do not have any connection with the university or any other local organization, not even the medicine departments, which is strange. They are externally funded, and nothing they do ends up on the official records here. When Lucio called I checked them using the OR-15 models in the area, and there have been a few trucks coming and going for the past few weeks, destination unknown.”

Efi turned to Orisa. “She has the coordinates for the building and will lead you there. I know you have someone to guide you as you enter, but Orisa will offer you some leeway if other OR-15 or the local police happens on patrol while you are there. Just try to keep out of sight, they have night vision and are programmed to disarm and capture trespassers. We have had a lot of monsters attacks and also some people attempting to pass off other crimes as monster attacks, so the city is on high alert.”

“I am sorry we are asking you to help us with this.” Angela said, sounding conflicted. “This mission is… technically illegal, and we do not have any sort of permission to run it, yet you are helping us out and even offering the support of Orisa. Are you alright with this?”

Efi seemed surprised at that, as if the thought had not even crossed her mind. “There are things that are illegal to do that are right,” she finally said, after a couple seconds. “Just because something is not legal does not mean it’s not right. And Orisa will always fight for what is right.”

Angela was speechless, and simply nodded to show she understood, and Efi flashed her a smile.

“Well then,” Genji moved from one foot to the other, showing his agitation. “Let’s go.”

Ana exhaled slowly. “Orisa, will you please board on the jet with the others and input the coordinates for the lab in the system?”

“Certainly, leave that to me!” Orisa straightened and took a step before she hesitated and turned around. “Efi, I will be back soon.”

“This is your first mission, even if it’s unofficial! Do your best, Orisa!”

“I will make you proud!”

Orisa trotted off, resolute and with a small skip to her gait, and Ana smiled to herself, following her and leading Pyrite along. Genji barely waited enough to offer Efi a small nod before chasing after them, leaving behind Hanzo, Angela and Jesse.

“Thank you for your help, Efi. We’ll make sure Orisa comes back safely, okay?” Angela nodded to Efi, and the three followed the rest of the team back to the jet.

They had a laboratory to break into.


	29. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to start by saying that I am entirely apologetic for the long radar silence. for those who have my tumblr, you might have noticed i had a bit of a writer's block concerning this fanfic, plus a few other things (and i started an accounting course that sucked all my energy, so i have only managed to do some art and drabbles in the meantime).
> 
> But I sorted out where I was having trouble with this fic and worked around it, planned accordingly, and I'm back on track.
> 
> This fic now sits at a total of 170k, and 29 chapters (28+prologue), and I think I'll be done in less than 40 total. (but I'll keep my number high to around 50 just to make sure, since i am a verbose person who always seem to write more than i should).
> 
> This chapter gives you a little more zen so you start to see what's happening to him. plus. a tiny tiny (but expected im 100% sure by all of you) cliffhanger. nothing big, tho.
> 
> The Ride starts again!
> 
> But also. not weekly updates until I finish the accounting course, which is still 2 weeks to go. Thank you for your patience and for reading this long author's note! (if you have).

**Chapter 28**

The laboratory was in the middle of the industrial area of Numbani, far from the actual city.

The industrial area had factories, storage sheds and other similar buildings that operated under the city’s jurisdiction, but away from residential blocks and historical areas, and was located in the southern periphery.

While the rest of the city appeared rather technological in style and architecture, mixing together tradition with modern appeal, the industrial area had changed very little in the past hundred or so years, as most of the factories and societies building there had no need for appealing facades.

As the ORCA slowly manoeuvred down into the empty lot, the shimmer of its masking feature keeping it from sight, Genji looked anxiously outside, observing their surroundings.

It looked like any other place, the same grey buildings, the same factory shapes and cement squares, the only difference was the distant curving skyscrapers of Numbani, and perhaps a few more trees than expected in an attempt to help keep the air cleaner around the factories.

“Lynx Seventeen is online and ready to help,” Athena’s voice alerted them, startling Genji from his staring.

“Well then,” he spoke up before Ana could. “Can you hack into that place to let us in?”

There was a soft, metallic scoff from the speakers of the jet. “Listen here, if you have nothing better to do than ruin the reputation of your hero team by barrelling into that laboratory like a drunk elephant into a crystal shop, be my guest. _But_ I’m fairly sure I’m speaking for the rest of your team when I say it would not be entirely conductive to the stealth part of your mission, yes?”

Someone snorted behind Genji, but when he looked above his shoulders, everybody kept a carefully blank expression, and he glared at them.

“Why would that prevent you from hacking their cameras?” he asked, shoulders hunched up. “Just… do some trick so we can go in.”

A slow, artificial exhale. “You cannot barge into that laboratory by simply disabling the security cameras, genius. If that was a normal laboratory dealing with nanomachines, it would still have heightened security requirements due to the delicate subject of their studies, but… we have already established it’s not a normal place, right?” Lynx Seventeen’s voice shifted through the jet’s speakers, until a screen flickered online from the seat in front of Genji, revealing the omnic hacker’s face plate. “They are probably monitoring things, and if Sombra is now updating their security, they will know of any obvious tampering, and will act accordingly… and the worst part is that you would be at fault if caught. You are, essentially, acting like thieves –and because of this, you need to be subtle. Think you can manage that, flashy hero?”

Genji gritted his teeth, annoyed at Lynx’s attitude.

Part of him knew the omnic was right and Genji needed to calm down, but… ten days. It had been ten days already and the fact that he could be close, that Zenyatta might be just in that building, held against his will and treated like an object, made Genji’s guts twist unpleasantly.

He’d waited enough –he could barely stand still, anticipation like an itch on his skin– and he needed to do something, anything, to make that feeling go away.

He needed to find him.

“Before you attempt to fight the hacker who’s helping us,” Jesse interjected, his drawl slow and at ease as he reached out to tap Genji’s shoulder with one knuckle, “maybe we can focus on getting through this lab shit and check whether Zenyatta’s really in there.”

“The weird cowboy’s right, listen to him,” Lynx said, amusement in their tone. Jesse’s lips twitched up in a small smile. “What we’re doing is a more… delicate hacking. Luckily for you, I’m the expert here. You leave the details to me and just follow my lead.”

“Alright then, bunny hacker. What should we do?”

Lynx Seventeen had no eyes to roll, but the small movement they did with their shoulders and head made it obvious that had been the intent. “You should be more inventive, I’ve heard that one already.” They turned to look at Orisa, who until then had remained quiet in a corner of the ORCA jet, happy to just wait. “Your programmer was kind enough to share with me the full extent of your abilities. We have two slots of ten minutes to work with to slip into the laboratory and then back out, and Orisa, your recharge time for that particular skill is–”

“Thirty minutes at least, but I recharge faster during the day.” Orisa happily replied, lifting her left hand.

The device had been built right onto the top part of her forearm, in the guise of a green ornamental plaque.

“Unfortunately, we are unable to do this by day, due to its… delicate illegal ramifications,” Ana commented drily. “So, Lynx… what is the plan?”

“Orisa’s ability, although still in beta, can be used to disrupt a part of the laboratory’s camera feed, which I will use to hack into the system. While her ability offers us ten minutes, I will need at least five to start my work, which leaves you the same amount to get into the laboratory. Once inside, you have an autonomy of thirty minutes before Orisa activates her ability to cover your escape.”

Genji frowned. “Why thirty minutes? Can’t we stay longer?”

“The laboratory guards will investigate the situation, and start a routine maintenance setup. That will only take a few minutes, and they will rule it out as a random malfunction, but they will monitor the cameras in case it happens again. And once it does…”

“They will know it was not random at all.”

“If it happens once, it’s possibly a glitch. If it happens twice, you look into it and search the cause. Thirty minutes is long enough to have whoever is guarding the laboratory relax before they get suspicious, and then checking the feed will keep them busy enough for you to leave the laboratory.”

“If I may,” Hanzo spoke up with a frown, “Would that not cause suspicion, if the glitch happens twice with no apparent reason?”

 “Indeed. This is why you have me. I will infect the system with a virus that will be traced down to someone using their systems to view uncensored porn. It is one of the most common reasons for security faults found in systems all around the world, and even without an actual scapegoat, it will only result in a scolding of all the guards on duty tonight. But once they work through the virus, they will strengthen the security. Thirty minutes is also to keep you from getting caught by guards patrolling the area, so that’s your time limit. And after that, you will not have a second chance.”

“So we have to navigate the laboratory in thirty minutes, find what we need and then leave, and it’s all we get.”

“Yes.”

Genji’s eyes narrowed in determination. “Then we will do it in that time.”

“What about our identities?” Jesse turned around to look at Ana, recognizing her as the one in command. “I get that your friend there is an incognita, but we can’t have anyone recognizing us.”

“Yes, Jesse, you wouldn’t want people to reconsider the bounty on your head, right?” Angela flashed him a small smile and received an impish one back.

“You first get a list of past infractions at least half as long as mine, darling, and then you can come at me,” Jesse shot her a slow, amused grin. “This is your first one. Go on, I’ll tally ‘em up for you from now on.”

“As I said,” Lynx Seventeen spoke again, deadpan, “this is why you have _me_.”

A compartment of the ORCA slid open near Ana, revealing a set of what looked like wireless headsets, but without a mic addition. They were black, without any distinctive symbol or brand on them. Ana grabbed one of them, eyes narrowing. “Hmmm…” then she tugged her hair away from her ear and gently set it over the curve of her ear. “How is this activated?”

“There is a button on the flat tip. Press it once to activate, twice to turn it off.”

Some sort of energy field flickered around her body, spreading from her ear to cover her face with a haze of transparent azure light. At her side, Pyrite seemed startled, his hands moving into a flurry of motions that Genji could not follow, nor decipher.

“So this is what it does?” Ana answered easily, lips stretched into a thin smile.

“Intriguing,” Hanzo took a step forwards, eyes narrowed. “It seems to be interacting with sight in some way. Such work seems rather refined. How did you manage to prepare those in so little time?”

“I’m good, but not _that_ good. I’ve been working on these for months. Had them shipped to you the moment I knew we would have to go a little under the radar. They are my special project, so I would _highly_ recommend for them to be returned to me without a scratch.”

“What are those?” Jesse picked one up, fiddling with the small thing. “Not exactly my choice for fashion style, have to admit.”

“Your fashion will be grateful to have something less tacky, cowboy,” Lynx replied without missing a beat. “They are equipped with a minor masking technology that will disrupt normal facial recognition in any surveillance system. They have a limited range of action and are somewhat delicate, so don’t go mashing your heads on stuff for the sake of it.”

Jesse didn’t seem offended at the jab at his fashion sense, far too interested in putting the single headset on his left ear. “Neat. Can I keep one?”

“Nah,” Lynx chuckled, propping their chin on one hand. “If I find one missing I will personally come to cash in your reward bounty.”

“Roger that.”

There was some quiet shuffling as they all grabbed one of the headsets and attached it to their ears, except Pyrite who inserted it into a slot of his armour, where he could activate it without worrying about losing it.

“What if we are caught by a guard, then?” Angela asked, fiddling with her headset. “It does not seem to impede a human sight, though it appears omnics’ sight is affected,” she motioned for Pyrite, who answered with a sharp nod of his head.

“Pray you won’t, darling,” Lynx answered, and that was it.

Genji swallowed, anticipation and wariness settling like stones in his stomach.

Thirty minutes to do everything they needed to do –a short window, and he was afraid that if he saw any hint of Zenyatta in there he would be unable to leave. He’d been part of the sentai for long enough to know his place as their leader, know when to retreat and when to fight, but he’d always been the rebel one, the person who rushed into things, and though he knew, rationally, that he would not be able to save Zenyatta right away…

He also knew that if he saw Zenyatta in there, he would not be able to think about anything else except getting him out.

“Genji, you ok?” Jesse tapped his shoulder. The flicker around his face was distracting, so Genji looked outside the jet instead.

“Yes,” he lied, and Jesse snorted.

“Care to try again?”

“… I will be once we find Zenyatta. Or… anything that I can use to find him.”

“That’s a little better, thank you.”

They turned to look at Ana, who was having an entirely quiet conversation through sign language with Pyrite, her back carefully turned towards them even though they could not understand what they were saying.

The conversation ended sharply when Ana turned around, ignoring the way Pyrite’s hands were moving in urgent, curt movements, as she faced the others instead. “Genji, Jesse, Hanzo, Angela. You will go. Pyrite and I will stay behind to offer support in case you need it, and we will keep the ORCA ready to leave at the first hint of danger. Orisa will be a bridge between us, as she needs to be closer to the laboratory to use her ability. I don’t think I have to tell you to be cautious.”

“Let’s go,” Genji muttered, looking at the laboratory in the dark.

***

“Do we get codenames?” Jesse asked, trying to keep his voice down.

The parking lot surrounding the laboratory was empty, save for three cars –one on the front and two on the side, barely visible from where the group was standing. The metallic fence was rusted but sturdy, tall enough that a normal person would be unable to climb on it.

As they moved closer, attempting to keep out of sight, Lynx followed them through the comms, careful to guide them away from the cameras; Orisa lagged behind, heavy on her feet and slower than they were, so the four had to slow down to let her catch up.

Angela kept glancing around in the dark, wincing when Orisa’s footsteps echoed heavily in the silence, and hoped no one would come out to investigate this soon into the operation.

“That’s stupid,” Genji muttered back to Jesse, not even looking at him. “Who cares about that?”

“I do, since I can’t use your names in case we’re overheard.”

“Just call me ‘you’ and that should be enough.”

“Why not spice up the situation, though? A lil’ fun–”

“ _Listen_.” Genji did stop mid-crouch, swirling his head back to glare at Jesse, and though the only light in the area came from one of the streetlights behind them Jesse could see the fury in Genji’s face, in his tightly clenched fists. “This _isn’t_ fun. I don’t care about stupid codenames. I just want to get in there and find out where Zenyatta is.”

Jesse’s mouth closed with a noticeable click of his teeth, and Hanzo’s hand fell heavily on Genji’s shoulder, stopping him.

“We all feel the gravity of the situation,” he told his brother, voice even, “and just as well, we can feel the tension, and it needs to be broken or it will break _you_.”

Shaking his shoulder to shrug off Hanzo’s hand, Genji shook his head and turned around to check on Orisa’s progress, satisfied when he saw she was close enough for them to continue. He did not heed Hanzo’s implied suggestion, nor did he apologize for his snappy attitude to Jesse.

Hanzo and Jesse shared a look, the former looking almost pained, and Jesse offered him a mirthless grin and a tiny shrug, to indicate he was not hurt by Genji’s behaviour.

The laboratory building was close now, but they needed to make sure they were in the right position.

“Are we close enough, Lynx?” Angela asked quietly in an attempt to divert the attention away from the building tension.

“That should be enough,” was the answer. “There is still quite a good distance to go once you pass the fence and get into the parking lot, but there is…” a pause “a door somewhere in front of you.”

Angela nodded, her hand closing around the tiny card-key Ana had given her earlier. It was a modified passe-partout, and once Lynx had deactivated the security field keeping the laboratory secured, they would send the codes to open the door to the card.

“Remember,” Lynx said, redundantly, “wait until Orisa receives my signal, and then you have five minutes to get through the parking lot, locate the door and get inside. To keep interferences to the minimum, I will refrain from contacting you once inside unless there are problems. Time yourselves and be back to the door before the time runs out. You have five extra minutes while Orisa sets up her barrier again, but any more than that and you will be stuck –and I won’t be able to help.”

“Fine,” Genji hissed, eyes narrowed. “Let’s start.”

Lynx did not answer, but Orisa moved forwards, carefully placing herself as close to the fence as possible without touching it, and extended her arm in front of her. The tech built on her forearm flicked on, emanating a pale glow in the dark, then expanded from her body like a force field, tiny bubbles of light flaring up to form what appeared to be a translucent shield.

“For your safety, please move behind my barrier,” Orisa said, shuffling and then sitting down. “The electromagnetic pulse might interfere with your friend Lynx’s gadget.”

They all hurried to get behind her as the barrier expanded further, stabilizing around them.

The nearby lamppost flickered twice, the sound of electricity being disrupted the only outward sign that something was happening.

Genji fought the urge to bite down on his nails, unable to stand this moment of inactivity now that they were supposed to get ready; instead, he flexed his legs, rubbing his hands down his arms and looking around as Hanzo kept watch, steely expression focused on the fence.

“Question,” Jesse murmured, his voice unnerved. “How are we passing through the fence?”

“Climbing,” Genji replied, uncaring.

A beat. “And for those of us who do not possess ninja abilities or can’t go Spiderman?”

Angela let out a small huff of dry amusement.

“You can climb on my back to reach the top of the fence,” Orisa offered kindly. “I hope you will jump down without trouble?”

Jesse hummed, patting her shoulder in thanks. “That should be fine, thank you.”

“You are most welcome, Jesse McCree.” Orisa’s digital expression shifted into a happy one, before her eyes glowed. “Three minutes down. Please get ready.”

Genji tensed up, eyeing the dark building in front of him.

It looked too small, too quiet, too unassuming –yet, Genji felt his dragon unfurl from deep within his consciousness, stirring up to soothe the worry it could feel from its wielder.

“Are we sure it’s workin’?” Jesse asked, eyeing Orisa.

“Please do not doubt Efi’s abilities, Jesse McCree,” Orisa answered, sounding chiding, and Jesse winced.

“One minute,” Hanzo murmured, and there was a minute shift in his stance –he moved his weight in preparation, hunching his shoulders.

Jesse hurried to get closer to Orisa, and Angela licked her lips before doing the same.

For a moment, all was quiet. The darkness around them was only broken by the flickering lights above and by Orisa’s shield, and then–

“The five minutes start now,” Orisa said, and without warning the barrier around her fell, plunging the area into darkness, including the lampposts around the base. “Good luck!”

Jesse and Angela scrambled to her side but Genji was already sprinting forwards, blind and deaf to anyone except the mission.

He jumped high –his dragon bubbling under the surface, aiding him– and he rose into the air and above the fence, hovering there for a split second before falling down again, this time inside the parking lot.

Hanzo was right behind him, using his heightened abilities to quickly climb through, even if with a few seconds delay, though by the time he landed in a crouch inside the perimeter, Genji was already speeding off towards the laboratory, unmindful of the ones he’d left behind in his haste.

“Genji, wait for us! Damn it– this is harder than it looks…” Jesse was still halfway onto the fence, fingers fumbling to keep his weight off from Orisa’s back and to hoist himself over, and Angela was not far behind, though in a better position to squint and watch as Genji reached the door.

“I will stop him before he can barge inside.” Hanzo turned around, as collected even now as he was before, then turned around and sprinted to follow Genji, footsteps quiet as he ran across the parking lot.

“Damn Shimada family and their knack for being quiet,” Jesse grumbled, hurrying to the top of the fence and vaulting over, stumbling and falling on his ass on the other side. “Need a hand, Angela?”

She sighed, knuckles white where she was holding the fence, still on the wrong side of it. “Yes, please.”

Together, they jumped over the fence and chased down Hanzo and Genji, so they could enter the laboratory together.

***

_~Seven days earlier~_

Time felt like it had lost all its meaning since his capture.

It was not unusual for him to be alone, since the scientists assigned to him were reluctant to engage with him after the first few times, and extremely mindful of Reaper’s words of warning as well, which meant long bouts of time without seeing anyone.

He had no idea what this solitary confinement was meant to achieve –he had been social, before turning into the Cultist, but ever since his change had made him into a monster, he had learned to cope with lack of company. If they thought he would crack due to solitude, then they were wrong.

The first few days of captivity had taught Zenyatta more about the laboratory and those within it than what his captors had learned about him, he suspected; the thick glass keeping him secure was more for the sake of the scientists than for his actual confinement, as it seemed its only merit was to prevent his monstrous aura from affecting them.

His presence clearly unnerved them even when they could not feel the aura, and while at first Zenyatta had been too tired and out of it to use this as leverage, he’d quickly found out that words could easily do what his aura did… and considering he had nothing else on his side, seeing them be wary of him, distancing themselves from the room, was as much of a victory as he could afford.

An escape was still not even a remote possibility, after all.

Possibly due to Sombra’s hacking, his battery levels were not simply severely depleted –they were internally damaged, and due to that he felt constantly tired. He passed from fits of troubled unconsciousness to wake with little to no warning, disorientated and with clouded thoughts, and with no change in light or window, he only had his own internal clock to keep the time.

He was not a threat, confined and restrained like this, and the thought… hurt.

Since his arrival, Zenyatta had not been subject to any test or experiment either; he had expected he would be shown no mercy, yet the scientists had secured him in his containment unit and then left without doing anything. It was concerning, rather than reassuring.

Any window of opportunity he noticed was short lived and narrow, yet he kept on the lookout regardless, hoping his patience would eventually be rewarded.

Still, while it took far too long for his batteries to repair themselves, there had been a slight improvement, and he could now stay awake for longer periods of time provided he kept most of his processes on low priority.

Whether his abandonment was due to some other higher priority experiment happening elsewhere in the laboratory, or for reasons he could not begin to comprehend, Zenyatta still felt grateful –waking up alone and fuzzy was scary enough without considering the implications of his captivity.

Yet, it was getting better. He was able to stay awake without sluggish processes, and it meant he could start fixing himself up.

First, Zenyatta ran another diagnostic test on himself. It returned somewhat positive, his batteries still damaged but able to retain now up to 20% of his energy –which gave him an estimated hour of wake before being pulled down once again. The rest of his processes were alright, and he was grateful that despite the monster DNA changes within his body, for the most part he was still mechanical, rather than organic. Being kept in a cage like this for so long would have cramped his muscles, if he had any.

Standing took a lot out of him, but Zenyatta felt a rush of relief when the movement was not accompanied by any sort of vertigo, though he had to lean on the glass panel of his containment unit to avoid stumbling back on the floor.

There was no safe way to get out of his cage, or even crack the glass –he suspected even if he had his energy back, it would prove to be futile– but just the fact that he was standing filled him with a sense of purpose that had been missing until then.

The next step had Zenyatta hesitate before he focused within himself.

Sombra’s hacking might have messed with his battery and who knew what else, but she had no power to prevent him from using his spiritual energy, nor his omnic energy either –humans could barely comprehend them, let alone harness or control what omnics could.

From within him, Discord was the first to answer, but at the cold touch Zenyatta dropped the connection instantly, burned by the still fresh memory of losing himself to it after his kidnapping. The cold lingered in the back of his mind like a taunt, and Zenyatta’s hands closed into fists, upset at his own falter and his failure to control himself.

Discord… no, he could not hope to control it now, not when he still felt unbalanced.

Harmony took longer for him to feel –a small, frail warmth coming from the depths of fatigue and despair surrounding him, but when the connection was made Zenyatta welcomed the sensation fully, closing his optical receptors to focus on it. The trickle of golden light spread from within him slowly, barely able to soothe some of his anxiety before it flickered off, but that, too, Zenyatta considered as a victory.

With his soul feeling so weary, lost in a sea of uncertainty and worry, Zenyatta had not been sure he would be able to reach for the Iris, let alone touch its Harmony.

Such a small thing was enough to reassure him, and he felt some of the tension drain away as he sent a grateful thought to the Iris for its blessing.

A quick check on his battery confirmed that it had taken a dip, yet not one as big as he had feared due to how quickly he’d severed the connection to the Iris; he was in no state to attempt to Transcend, and while it would probably fix his batteries fully, he was not sure he could withstand the Iris enough not to crumble under its touch.

Zenyatta had first-hand experience dealing with the unknown, and even though he’d spent years exploring the depths of the Iris, in faith and in mind, under the guidance of Mondatta and the other Shambali, he was acutely aware of how little they truly knew about it, and how easy it would be to get truly lost, on that path of knowledge. That the Iris allowed them this connection was just proof of their hard work, yet it would be far too easy to misstep, and then…

There might be little left of Zenyatta, if he forced himself that much.

Shaking his head slowly, Zenyatta straightened his back a little and strained his auricular receptors, but he could hear nothing at all. The room was soundproof, unfortunately.

Between this and how sterile the room looked, especially under the constant, artificial lights, Zenyatta knew he would find little of interest and yet he still looked; the machines in the corner hummed quietly, connected through the dome to him, and Zenyatta did not trust himself enough to disentangle the wires yet, not until he had his energy back.

His scans did not reveal much about them –just that they existed as a bridge between the computers and him, but they were not… doing anything, at least for now.

He observed the cables from where they disappeared on the back of one of the bigger screens, a seed of uncertainty chipping at his carefully constructed shield.

What were the scientists waiting for?

Refusing to allow this train of thoughts to destabilize him again, Zenyatta forced himself to pay attention to what was in the room instead, optical receptors making a list of everything he could see around him. Despite the size, the room did not seem to have much other than the machinery and the containment units, and nothing close to him either, except…

The room might be sterile, but it was not clean. There were balls of crumpled up paper scattered in the corners, and one of them was close to his unit.

His orbs had been taken somewhere else, probably out of fear that he would be able to connect with them, but he wondered…

Slowly, he extended one arm, a trickle of omnic energy travelling down his fingers.

It would have been better if instead of paper, he could have had something mechanical or magnetic to try this on, though he was not sure it would work, but… it was worth a try.

The thick glass barrier appeared to contain his omnic energy –the sparkle hit the dome and fizzled out– so Zenyatta looked down, directing another spark to the cables connecting him with the machines outside.

It took more focus than he’d expected to, and he could feel his battery take a hit due to the increased power he was directing outside of him, but the omnic energy wriggled out of the dome, a glint of translucent blue barely visible in the still air of the laboratory.

Forehead array buzzing in distress, the tentacles around his face slack with fatigue, Zenyatta kept his focus as sharp as possible and directed the tiny trail of omnic energy towards the crumpled paper ball, enveloping it, then–

–he _pushed_.

The paper ball rustled slightly, as if hit by an invisible breeze, but at first it did not move. Even something this light was too heavy in his weakened state, but Zenyatta did not allow himself to give up, sending against his better judgement another wave of omnic energy to chase the rest.

He pressed one hand against the glass, feeling the drain on his processes, but kept at it, waited until the second wave of energy had reached the ball before pushing again, and this time…

The ball of paper rolled a bit on the side, then started to rotate in place, an inch above ground level.

Relief washed over him; it was such a small thing, but if he could keep at it, if he could conserve his energy enough, then maybe–

The laboratory door slid open with a soft whoosh and Zenyatta’s focus broke, scattering his omnic energy into nothingness as Reaper stormed inside.

Circuits buzzing with adrenaline, Zenyatta dropped his hand at his side, straightening his back and doing his best to appear unaffected; this was the first time he’d seen Reaper in over three days, ever since he’d been confined in this sterile room, and he wondered, distantly, if this meant they would finally start experimenting on him.

He did not felt ready, but he would not show it.

Reaper did not deign to look at him, but rather than head over to Zenyatta’s containment unit he walked to the empty one at his right –or rather, stumbled to it. Zenyatta’s forehead array flashed in confusion, not understanding Reaper’s apparent fatigue, but his surprise quickly turned into shock as Reaper pushed one gloved hand down on a panel on the wall, and the empty glass dome slid open with a hiss.

Zenyatta’s optical receptors caught a flicker of something on the edge of Reaper’s arm, and as he looked at the spot, he could see the nanomachines fray and drop away from Reaper’s body, buzzing and falling to the ground, where they seemed confused, sluggishly rolling back to melt into Reaper’s leg.

It was only then that Reaper did look his way, catching Zenyatta’s focus and growling, deep in his throat. “What are you looking at?”

Zenyatta hummed. “You seem… perturbed,” he said, after a small moment of silence, and was grateful that his voice did not shake. “Is there something hailing you?”

Reaper barked what sounded like a bitter, incredulous laughter. “What hails me, Cultist?”

He extended his arm towards the glass dome with Zenyatta inside, fingers splayed wide apart, and Zenyatta watched as his hand melted into nothing, dropping on the floor like wet, dark ink, wriggling at his feet like worms.

Zenyatta’s head snapped back –not at the sight, but at the intense wave of Discord and pain that hit his senses, even with him attempting to keep his barriers up.

It was… worse. So much worse than before, and as Zenyatta’s instinctive reaction was to step back, stumbling a bit from Reaper, he couldn’t help but feel more of that same Discord wrap around him, thick and dark, and it took him a few seconds just to gather enough strength to close himself off, hands curled at his sides to prevent Reaper from seeing how much they were shaking.

The nanomachines that were part of Reaper’s body seemed to fight against each other and him, and Zenyatta… it sent him back for a moment, replaying his own fight with the nanomachines he’d absorbed from Genji.

Reaper was not… he was not fully in control, and against better judgement Zenyatta opened himself again, drowning for a few seconds in the waves of pain and distress that Reaper was emanating, hoping to understand.

It was like slipping, sinking into his Discord, and it was an eternity later that Zenyatta finally closed himself off again. Mere seconds had passed, no indication of his actions on the outside, and Reaper scoffed at him before slipping into the glass dome.

Slowly, sluggishly, the nanites that had fallen from him wriggled inside as well, pulled by invisible, weak strings.

“What is happening to you, Reaper?” Zenyatta’s synthetic voice did not contain a trace of the horror he felt, though there was enough of it to make him dizzy.

“I am sure you will find this amusing, Cultist –but you’re not the only one who is doomed, inside here. You’re just one of many.” Reaper grunted as the panels of his own glass dome closed up around him, sealing him inside. “Computer. Initiate program two-delta-zero-five.”

Around them there was a sudden flicker, and though there was no answer from the computer, one of the screens on the far right lit up, and Reaper’s cage started to vibrate.

Something heavy pressed against the inside of Zenyatta’s head, and he recognized the sensation –there was an electromagnetic field surrounding Reaper’s containment unit.

Zenyatta’s optical receptors whirred as he adapted them and suddenly the room shifted to greyscale, particles in the air now solidly visible as they concentrated around Reaper’s body.

The magnetic field pushed against him, and Reaper grunted, a flare of pain passing through to Zenyatta’s senses. It did not seem to have any visible effect that Zenyatta could see, at least at first.

“This is no spectacle, Cultist.” The tired tension in Reaper’s tone snapped Zenyatta’s attention back to his masked face. “You should be more worried about yourself.”

“My worries are not limited to my current situation. You chose to trap yourself here, after all, so you will have to mind my curiosity. After all, there is not much else for me to entertain myself with.”

“You will not find a weakness to exploit here –you are _trapped_ in this laboratory, and that is the harsh truth.” Despite the cutting tone, his words meant as an obvious provocation, Zenyatta felt no real animosity coming from Reaper, as any emotion other than pain and fatigue felt distant in comparison.

“What does that say about you, Reaper? Are you trapped in here as well, then?”

By chance, by choice –Zenyatta could puzzle Reaper’s options later. With the few pieces in his possession, and Reaper’s actions and words still clear in his mind, he knew there was more to this than what Reaper wanted him to know.

“Even if I was…” Reaper hissed, curling both hands into fists at his sides, “It is nothing that concerns you.”

Silence fell between them, Reaper tense and panting while Zenyatta was quiet, observing him for what felt like a long time.

The nanomachines in Reaper’s body were buzzing still, but his appearance seemed to be more stable, as if the electromagnetic field was helping him keep them under control, tight around his frame.

It did not feel like a solution, and Zenyatta watched on, aware of Reaper’s pain, thinking, analysing, as if he needed more than a second to make his decision.

Reaper’s frame jolted in shock when he felt a warm glow brush against his mind. Behind his mask, eyes snapped open to find a frail, pale golden light hovering in front of his chest, offering nothing more than a dull numbing of the pain spreading through his unstable frame.

He’d felt this already once –the gentle, soothing warmth from the Cultist’s inexplicable healing abilities, though this time reduced in intensity.

Not as overpowering as during their fight, yet Reaper’s nanomachines flocked to it, bubbling to eat at the soft golden light, slipping out of his control even with the magnetic pulse keeping them at bay.

His head snapped towards Zenyatta, anger bubbling up within him. “Do not _pity_ me, Cultist.”

Zenyatta’s face plate, motionless and without emotion, was unreadable for him, the tentacles slack, the green glow conspicuously dimmer. He slid down to sit on the table inside his dome, but the warmth from the light in front of Reaper remained steady.

“This is no pity”.

Gritting his teeth, Reaper tried to push the light away, denying the comfort it brought, nauseated by its presence and by the fact that the monster trapped by his side was the one who was offering it to him, in spite of everything. “Whatever it is, you can keep it,” he hissed. “I have no need for it.”

“Need might not be, yet your soul is in pain, and I could not help but answer its call.”

“How nice,” he sneered “that you would offer the enemy who put you in here such _mercy_.”

There was no answer –and after a few seconds, Zenyatta’s forehead array flicked off as he powered down again, his energy depleted by the Harmony he’d shared with Reaper.

***

The moment Zenyatta regained consciousness, his internal clock stabilizing to alert him that he’d lapsed for half a day, he became aware that he was not alone.

It was not Reaper –the absence of the familiar cloud of Discord from his senses was telling– but someone else was there, and Zenyatta tensed even before powering up his optical receptors to look around.

“Oh, you woke up. Splendid, I was getting _so_ bored around here.”

The familiar, snarky voice had Zenyatta’s shoulders jolt, and his optical receptors flicked on, focusing on the figure standing near the door.

Sombra was leaning against the wall, twirling a pen in her fingers, and though the colourful face paint she wore did a good job hiding her expression, Zenyatta was good at reading people’s body language –he could tell she was excited he’d woken up.

“I will make sure to appear properly sorrowful for the lack of stimulating pastimes to reflect your disappointment,” he spoke, straightening his back.

Zenyatta could manage Reaper, he could keep steady with the scientists, so scared of him –but Sombra had been inside his head, messing with him. She had worked through his processes, controlled him, controlled his anger.

She had rendered him useless. She was the one who had ultimately caught him.

In her presence, Zenyatta felt exposed, in a way he did not like.

“Yeah, yeah, do that. Watching you sleep is just… ugh. Here I thought being assigned to here would get me some fun but noo, you have to be _boring_.”

“Why, if I did not have to deal with faulty batteries I would probably offer more witty banter. The company is not as nice as I would like it either, but we all have to make do with the hand we’re dealt.”

Sombra glanced at him, body going slack enough that he could not read her.

“Ugh. Why am I even here.”

“if you have problems with the company, you are free to leave.”

“Nah, it’s not like I have anything better to do so I guess we could have a friendly chat, right Cultist?” she stepped closer to the dome he was in, and Zenyatta, despite himself, had a hard time staying still and not shift away from her, though he knew he could not escape her presence. “We never did get… acquainted, did we? Get to know each other, all that nice stuff.”

“Is that why you are here?” Zenyatta knew Sombra was attempting to intimidate him, and it _stung_ that she could do it successfully.

“Yeah, sure. That, or I could do some… tests on you. What do you think?” Sombra watched him stiffen with a wide, amused smile before snorting. “Oh man, did you know your tentacles do this… weird little wriggle when you’re scared? If you weren’t so creepy, it’d be _cute_. I wouldn’t do any tests –I’m a hacker, not a scientist. _Much better_.”

Zenyatta did not reply to that. His battery had barely recovered from earlier, and he did not want to engage Sombra more than he should.

Sombra did not seem to mind his silence, because she shifted back, away from him, and stretched her arms in the air in a fake, casual pose. “Mind you, I’m here because of you. You’re pretty interesting, and definitely better than the stuffy people I have to talk with normally. Even though you’re pretty scary.”

While he could not glare at her, he did level her with a small, stern gaze, and Sombra must have picked up on his mood because she laughed again.

“Listen, you’re the one thing that makes all of this somewhat bearable. I had to poke around a lot to find you, and unlike most people I meet, I actually don’t know anything about you. I heard your sentai ranger friends calling you Zenyatta, yet I can’t find anything on you anywhere. It’s a challenge. Oh, wait, don’t say anything–” she raised one hand to stop him as he attempted to speak, “I’ll eventually find out who you are. I’m the best hacker around, after all. But the challenge is amusing. Talon doesn’t let me have any fun, but I’m stuck here until I’ve done my part of the deal. You know… better have them as friends than not.”

And that… Zenyatta might have missed other cues, but he did not miss _this_ one.

Someone like Sombra, with no attachments to her name, no information, no face anyone could recognize behind her costume… she was a dangerous, worrisome person, and yet… for her to say so casually that Talon was dangerous enough even for her…

Zenyatta felt his core stutter.

Who _was_ Talon? Why did they capture monsters who had been… human, omnic, once? What was the reason they employed people like Reaper in their ranks?

Sombra’s eyes narrowed and she looked at him.

“Oh, c’mon. Don’t make that face. I’m not a cruel person. I don’t really want to see any of this. It’s not how I vibe. But I can’t do much that wouldn’t come bite me later, you know? But let me tell you something.” She leaned closer again, but this time Zenyatta did not move, sensing that whatever sombra was about to say would be important. “You saw there’s others like you in here, right? But you don’t know that there’s one in particular who is kept separate from the rest, just like you… but worse. Too unstable to be used, you know? And not even the people here can control him, so they keep him tied up and confined all alone. He’s untreatable, and he barely seems human at all. Haven’t seen him with my own two eyes, but I hacked into the camera feed –not something you’d want to meet at night.”

Auricular receptors buzzing, Zenyatta had nothing to say to this, but the idea that they were hosting another mutated monster, one that had regressed enough to be dangerous… it made Zenyatta think about the aquatic omnic, about Reaper, who seemed to be unstable… was that was awaited him?

Was it what awaited all of them?

Sombra tapped one finger against the surface of the glass, and Zenyatta’s attention moved there for a second as pink flashed across the dome like ripples on a spider web. “You were a successful experiment, _Cultist_. He… well, he wasn’t that lucky. What a pity, isn’t it?”

Then she looked at Zenyatta right in the optical receptors, lips stretched into a mirthless smirk. “Though in this situation, you are also rather unfortunate. Though luck.”

Zenyatta felt confused for a moment –Sombra’s unusual chatty mood had given him… a few things to ponder about, and information he did not have before, yet it felt like she was playing with him, with rules only she knew.

With so little he could control, the hacker’s attitude just made it worse.

The glove on one of Sombra’s hands flashed pink, and she looked down at it, her tiny smirk turning into a displeased pout, but it disappeared quickly back under her careless mask.

“I’m not as bored now,” Sombra offered Zenyatta a small, cheeky wave. “Guess I kept you company long enough, better get going. See you later~”

Zenyatta was looking at her, and when she teleported away, his optical sensors caught the translation, though the technology she used seemed to be rather complicated, and definitely not something he could understand. Yet, he’d caught her glove flaring with power, which implied she had a transmitter there that was connected with her teleporter unit, wherever that might be.

He had no way to find it or steal it from her, nor replicate her ability, but analysing it could still offer him some sort of aid in the future…

The door of the laboratory slid open, and Zenyatta, startled out of his thoughts, turned to look at it, surprised at the specific timing –he and Sombra had been alone until then, but the moment she decided to leave was seconds before someone else arrived… that was somewhat suspicious.

Did Sombra not want others to know she’d been there?

Still tense, Zenyatta felt a little relieved when, rather than a scientist or some incognita, it was Reaper who stomped into the room again, looking no better than he had been before.

it was a testament of how things had progressed that Zenyatta’s processes did not classify Reaper as a threat anymore –despite his scathing words and his animosity, he had not attempted to harm him since his capture, and it seemed like once Reaper had absolved his assignment, he had no further interest in engaging with Zenyatta, despite them having to share a room.

If anything, Zenyatta was… concerned about him.

He was not sure if he truly did care –Reaper was part of the reason why he’d been caught, and Zenyatta still felt Discord deep within his soul at the thought, but…

Any other person might feel resentful, yet Zenyatta could not –it was probably the depths of Reaper’s pain that skewed his perspective on the matter, and he knew it was pointless to worry about one of his captors, and yet…

And yet.

Zenyatta could not rationalise what he felt no more than he could stop his own monstrous aura.

“Back so soon, Reaper?” he asked instead, voice even.

He received a distorted grunt as his only answer, but there was a spike of anticipation in Reaper’s aura, though it was drowned out in no time by the pain.

“It seems we will have to coexist in the same place again, Cultist.”

That was yet another fragment of Sombra’s puzzle that he could not access –she knew his name, but had not shared that with Reaper. Maybe she had, but he did not care enough to use it, or maybe she had kept the information to herself… for some reason.

“Forgive me if my abilities to heal are not up to par,” Zenyatta continued without missing a beat, “but as it seems, they have been dampened considerably by the situation at hand. I am sure you understand… captivity does not do well on someone’s strength.”

Reaper choked out a raspy laugh. “I believe we both know how that works. Thankfully, you do not need to… exert yourself. The Doc will be here and she’ll take care of this herself.”

The tension inside Zenyatta snapped at this, flooding his body with anxiety, fizzing through his circuits until he felt he could start shaking at any time now.

Reaper had little care for respect or property –the laboratory scientists had been waved off with a mere few words, and his attitude with Sombra also spoke volumes of how he acted– but he knew this was different.

If the doctor mentioned was coming to treat whatever was wrong with Reaper –and Zenyatta’s suspicions seemed to be confirmed with every meeting he had with him– it meant they would be a potential danger to Zenyatta himself.

“Don’t worry your ugly tentacles over this, Cultist,” Reaper grunted out, leaning heavily against the containment unit, “she will have enough time to give you some attention as well, no need to be envious. After all, she’s been waiting for this meeting for a long while, now.”

Zenyatta had little time to puzzle what this meant –there were footsteps coming from the corridor outside the lab room, but rather than the ‘Doc’ Reaper had mentioned, it was simply a lone scientist who walked into the lab room, looking uncomfortable and wary in the presence of both Zenyatta and Reaper in the same place.

“Uh… Reaper, sir, maybe you should…” the man swallowed compulsively, shoulders twitching, and Zenyatta watched him with curiosity, not understanding his jumpiness until Reaper scoffed and slid inside the second containment unit. Under Zenyatta’s optical receptors, the man seemed to relax minutely, the tension in his shoulders fading the moment Reaper was shut inside. “Yes. Thank you. Now, uh, let me just…”

As he hurried to the computers in the corner, tapping away on the keyboard to pull up charts monitoring Reaper’s health, the truth finally clicked inside Zenyatta’s mind.

Reaper had a monstrous aura now.

He hadn’t had one before, not that he could remember –he’d seen Sombra interact with him normally, and the scientists at the lab acted without fear around him before, yet now…

Things had changed.

Reaper’s health was deteriorating, and Zenyatta did not need to read the charts on the computer in front of the scientist to know this. Somehow, the monster DNA within him was growing stronger, and corrupting Reaper, changing him, forcing his body to…

To do what? The nanomachines seemed to deteriorate and fall apart, but the constant pain did not seem to change, not that he could feel…

“I assume you have no interest in me,” Zenyatta spoke up, and watched as the scientist jumped at his voice. “it must be rather important, if you put aside such an esteemed guest as I am to devote all your focus on my captor.”

“N–” the man shook his head and ignored him, his eyes steady on the screen in front of him.

Zenyatta hummed, making it sound like he was amused. “I guess one should always treat their own side with common courtesy, even when they are… deathly afraid to be in the same room as them.”

Again the man twitched, yet resisted to speak up once more. Zenyatta did not mind –just unnerving him meant he could get under his skin.

“You ought to consider shutting up,” Reaper grunted at him, chest heaving. “You are not as important as you think you are.”

“Oh, so perhaps my capture was a mistake, then? That would be truly a relief –that I have been dragged here and kept hostage for no reason whatsoever. Or is it that your status is of greater use to your… organization… that whatever you could extract from me?”

“Of course,” the scientist scoffed, “it’s why we’re working to keep him stable.”

“I am afraid he is not as stable as you wish him to be,” Zenyatta answered, almost pleasantly. “Unless _melting_ is an expected side effect of… stability.”

“No, that is… bad.” The scientist casted a glance at Reaper, face almost worried, and then the magnetic field around his containment unit powered up again, forcing a grunt out of Reaper as it pushed around him. “It has gotten worse, possibly due to his recent exertion…”

“Indeed. Must have been quite a daring experiment, to have lasted so long without… complications.”

“Oh, she knew it would happen, the inevitable corruption of organic tissues due to the intrusive nanomachines corroding themselves almost constantly–”

“Shut. _Up_.” Reaper hissed out, and Zenyatta was startled by the way his voice tilted lower, like an abnormal hiss. “Don’t you have work to do?”

The scientist jumped in fright, but Zenyatta had been given enough information as it was that it confirmed his unfortunate deductions already.

“I suspect,” he commented, toneless voice not giving away the horrified realization that he had been right, “that Reaper might be as much of a failed experiment as the one in your solitary confinement unit.”

Both the scientist and Reaper snapped their attention to him, and Zenyatta felt a wave of barely hidden shock at his carefree admission –they had no idea how he had gained such knowledge, as he was kept alone in the room with little to no contact.

Zenyatta ignored the man, looking at him with even more fear in his eyes –did he believe Zenyatta had more ‘powers’ that had never been exposed before? Did he believe him supernatural, now?– to turn to look at Reaper.

The cloud of pain was still thick, but Zenyatta could feel now, just as strong, his fear.

“Will you end up there, as well, Reaper?” he asked.

Reaper was deathly silent for a long while –enough that the scientist’s fingers on the keyboard and the vibrations of the magnetic field around him were the only sounds in the room for a long time. Then, he looked away, shoulders hitched up, hands clenched into fists.

“You know that answer already,” Reaper hissed.

There was no tone to his voice, but what Zenyatta could sense for him was enough.

Zenyatta did not know what to do –it was not like he could offer much, and Reaper would not accept it from him either, but the inevitability of his descent, and the fear that bubbled within him, were frightening for him as well.

He took a step forwards, hand pressed on the surface of his prison, staring right at Reaper, about to speak–

The sound of short heels clacking against the floor, rhythmically growing closer and closer, made him hesitate and Reaper, dropping all pretenses, grunted and pushed all his weight against the glass at his back, using it to keep himself upright.

“Guess it doesn’t matter,” he hissed. “She’s here now.”

As Zenyatta’s optical receptors turned to the door, the infamous ‘Doc’ entered the laboratory room, giving it a cursory glance before her heterochromatic eyes moved to stare right into Zenyatta’s face plate, his tentacles going slack in shock.

“Delighted to see you have settled so well, Cultist,” Moira murmured, thin lips set into an unpleasant smile, “Though I am afraid you will have to wait just a little longer. More urgent matters require my attention, now.”

 


End file.
